HTTP 200 OK
Allow: GET, PUT, PATCH, DELETE, HEAD, OPTIONS
Content-Type: application/json
Vary: Accept
{
"id": 955064,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/955064/?format=api",
"text_counter": 248,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Suba North, ODM",
"speaker_title": "Hon. (Ms.) Odhiambo-Mabona",
"speaker": {
"id": 376,
"legal_name": "Millie Grace Akoth Odhiambo Mabona",
"slug": "millie-odhiambo-mabona"
},
"content": " Thank you, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker for giving me this opportunity. I wish to support this Bill with amendments. I will not speak on the positives that are contained in this Bill, but I will speak to some aspects that I hope the Chairperson of the Committee will pick and consider bringing amendments. On the issue of digital market place that is provided in Clause 3, a lot of our young people, because of lack of jobs, have become innovative and creative. We are the ones that encouraged them. They are doing a lot of business online. I bought a second hand dress online to encourage our young people to be in business especially, young women. If we bring them to the tax bracket, we will be encouraging flight from this sector yet we are not able to employ them. So, I want to encourage the Committee to consider bringing an amendment on that. The Ajira Digital Platform seeks to tax young people who are registered for the Ajira Digital Programme. I know the Ministry is trying to find ways of increasing revenue but the Committee, as they have suggested, would bring other suggestions that will not focus on young men and women who are trying to eke out a living. If you look at Clause 10, it seeks to amend the Income Tax Act to include areas like outside catering, sales promotion, marketing and fumigation outside hotels. Sometimes I do not know whether we seriously think about these issues. I am using the word “outside catering” because it is outside catering. The women groups that we are supporting in our various constituencies that provide outside catering services in funerals and small gatherings in villages, a lot of times, hardly make any money. Sometimes, they make only Kshs10,000 in a whole month. Some of them wait for funerals probably because that is the nearest they can get in a whole year. If we want to start discouraging them by taxing the little income they get, that will not be proper. When you talk about fumigation outside hotels, we have a lot of Kenyans who are employed and do small business aside. Many of us try to promote them in various ways. If I have cockroaches in my house, I am not going to get a big establishment. I will call a young man or woman who is struggling to do their work here and there to come and do the fumigation in my house. Now we are expecting them to pay taxes. As much as we are trying to increase revenue, let us acknowledge that a lot of Kenyans are employed in the informal sector because there are no jobs. And you discover a lot of them are graduates. It is shocking. Like the women who wash clothes, when you talk to some of them, you get to know that they are degree holders, but they wash clothes because they are not able to get formal jobs. That is our reality. When, as a country, we have failed to get them jobs, we cannot then chase them from where they are trying to eke out a living and frustrate their small businesses. Let us rethink how we want to increase our taxes, but not by going after the small businesses. I am hoping the Chair of the Committee has heard, though I do not see him, and that as a Committee, they will bring amendments. I can see the Vice-Chair is there. I had consulted with the Chair when I saw this provision and he told me the Committee intends to bring those amendments. I would encourage them to do so. I also want to speak to Clause 50 that talks to the issue of lawyers. I did not get opportunity to speak to it earlier. I know the Speaker will make a ruling on the same issue. This Bill seeks to basically deal with revenue-raising measures. But when we want to deal with something as substantive as something that touches on lawyer-client privilege, I do not think we should bring it by way of almost a miscellaneous amendment. I know the Committee says that the Law Society of Kenya made a presentation, but I do not think this should be the best way for us to go. Yes, we want to deal with the issue of corruption through money laundering, and I know a lot of people have found lawyers as a safe haven because of the lawyer-client privilege, The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposes only. Acertified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor."
}