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{
"id": 1431441,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1431441/?format=api",
"text_counter": 3797,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Hon. Deputy Speaker",
"speaker_title": "",
"speaker": null,
"content": "Proceed, Hon. Passaris."
},
{
"id": 1431442,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1431442/?format=api",
"text_counter": 3798,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Nairobi City County, ODM",
"speaker_title": "Hon. Esther Passaris",
"speaker": null,
"content": " Thank you, Hon. Deputy Speaker. I stand to support the Supplementary Budget as read by the Chairman of the Budget and Appropriations Committee. But as he prepares the Budget for the Financial Year 2024/2025, they should re-look at the estimates to ensure that we do not over budget. As we can see, there has been a reduction on capital expenditure of over Ksh73 billion. They should not over budget. It is these budgets that inform the Departmental Committee on Finance and National Planning on the money that they need to raise. Ambitious budgets make us to look for ways to raise money that sometimes pit us against an economy that is struggling and has been dwindling. We need to put a lot more money under Article 223 of the Constitution to look after citizens that were affected by floods. We need to look at how much money we will allocate, especially here in Nairobi City County. We have seen very many demolitions happening to pave way for Nairobi River projects. We commend the Government for this. We need to sort out the dilapidating state of rivers. We need to safeguard citizens by reclaiming riparian lands, but there is a way to do certain things. We have not followed ethical ways of doing things. If we were to budget well, we would put up structures to ensure there is a humane face when dealing with citizens of Kenya, who look up to us as the Government to provide for them."
},
{
"id": 1431443,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1431443/?format=api",
"text_counter": 3799,
"type": "scene",
"speaker_name": "",
"speaker_title": "",
"speaker": null,
"content": "[The Deputy Speaker (Hon. Gladys Boss) left the Chair]"
},
{
"id": 1431444,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1431444/?format=api",
"text_counter": 3800,
"type": "scene",
"speaker_name": "",
"speaker_title": "",
"speaker": null,
"content": "[The Temporary Speaker (Hon. David Ochieng’) took the Chair]"
},
{
"id": 1431445,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1431445/?format=api",
"text_counter": 3801,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Nairobi City County, ODM",
"speaker_title": "Hon. Esther Passaris",
"speaker": null,
"content": "I hope that in this Supplementary Budget we will also look into the school-feeding programme for our students. We have a challenge not only in public schools, but also in community-based and faith-based schools. We need to start touching lives. By touching lives, I do not mean with long-term projects. I mean touching lives with short-term, immediate projects. We have been pledging to pay the people whose houses were demolished Ksh10,000. This is mediocre. We are assuming that a person whose house we have demolished lives in a slum and can find a house, pay a deposit and move in with Ksh10,000. We have not realised the emotional damage that we have caused that person. If I were the President of this country and I wanted to clear out riparian land, the first thing I would have done is to identify the houses to be demolished. Nobody even knows whether it is 30 metres. People just wake up to X markings on their houses, then the houses are demolished. I would have found out how many houses are on riparian land in each region. I would make sure that I know where the displaced people are moving to and not just break their houses and then tell them to move. This has now been left to the chiefs and Deputy County Commissioner (DCC), who have no idea whose houses they have demolished and who the genuine beneficiaries are. This is because we are disorderly. If the Government is disorderly, then citizens will be disorderly. If we had identified, budgeted and known that a number of people in a particular slum would be moved, we would have had their names, set aside their money and identified where they would be relocated to. We would give them seven days and sufficient money. We should have given them not less than Ksh50,000 per family. The Ksh10,000 is not enough. We could have also given them the National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF) cover. There has to be benefits. Those people found themselves in those riparian lands because we, as the The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor."
},
{
"id": 1431446,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1431446/?format=api",
"text_counter": 3802,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Nairobi City County, ODM",
"speaker_title": "Hon. Esther Passaris",
"speaker": null,
"content": "Government, failed. We failed the citizens. We approved for them to build. They did not just wake up and build. I am tired of a Kenya where people buy land, get title deeds, take loans from banks, then one fine morning we wake up and say that that is an illegality. It is an illegality that we have caused. How much money are we putting into strengthening the weak structures of this country? Yesterday, I saw Felix Kosgey on television saying that the Government will be zero-tolerant to corruption. There is no way the Government can have zero tolerance to corruption if you have not given money to entities that fight corruption. Have we given them enough money to fight corruption? Because nothing is cast on stone, I want to see in the Supplementary Budget a provision for more money and food for the citizens that we have aggrieved. I am tired of people looking at Nairobi and thinking it is a rich county. It is not a rich county because of failures of devolution through corruption. We, therefore, need to make sure that we have an equalisation fund for Nairobi. As long as all those counties getting money fail, everybody ends up coming for greener pastures in Nairobi. Nairobi is over congested. I fully support and hope that the Budget and Appropriations Committee can consider the one man-one vote-one shilling policy. We need to make sure that we appropriate budgets that way. This will improve our democracy. If we say one-man-one-vote-one shilling, people will take voting seriously. They will ensure that they register as voters. Right now, there is voter apathy. Eight million voters did not vote. Why? Because they have no confidence in the Government. But when we take resources to the places where they are needed…How can you give Kasarani Constituency, which has over 300,000 people, the same resources you give a constituency with 11,000 people? We are failing. Hon. Temporary Speaker, as we budget, let us do it according to our pockets and look for ways to raise money. As we look for ways to raise money, let us also remember that we owe a lot of people. I want to know whether we have ensured that we will pay some of the pending bills in the current Supplementary Budget. We have made our citizens poor because we are not paying pending bills. When I was looking at the South African elections, I saw how the Democratic Alliance Party got very many votes. There will come a time when the Democratic Alliance Party will rule South Africa. There will come a time when an independent candidate will be the President of this country. At the end of the day, people are getting poorer and poorer no matter what we do. How are we going to change that? It starts with budgeting, and we have to have a human touch. The Government might be a building, but the building is run by humans. As leaders, if we go out and ask for votes, let us start touching and saving lives. We should start empowering and enriching our citizens. If it is about tightening the belt, let Parliament start tightening its belt. Every entity needs to tighten its belt so that the citizens of this country can be enriched and empowered. Thank you, Hon. Temporary Speaker."
},
{
"id": 1431447,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1431447/?format=api",
"text_counter": 3803,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Uasin Gishu County, UDA",
"speaker_title": "Hon. Gladys Boss",
"speaker": null,
"content": " Thank you, Hon. Temporary Speaker, for this opportunity to speak to the budget. I know many Hon. Members have spoken in support of this Motion, but I want to challenge them. As much as we have the power to budget and appropriate money to the various State departments, we must also take responsibility in ensuring that we support the Kenya Revenue Authority in raising resources to ensure that we have the money to appropriate. The Chairperson of the Budget and Appropriations Committee, Hon. Ndindi Nyoro and the Chairperson of the Public Accounts Committee, Hon. Mbadi, have a responsibility to take care of the resources that we have appropriated by ensuring that they do not lose the money through corruption, misappropriation, carelessness or incompetence by public officers. The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor."
},
{
"id": 1431448,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1431448/?format=api",
"text_counter": 3804,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Uasin Gishu County, UDA",
"speaker_title": "Hon. Gladys Boss",
"speaker": null,
"content": "I want to give you a few examples. For instance, I know you have appropriated to the Judiciary. As we speak, Hon. Mbadi, many years ago, this Parliament appropriated money to the Judiciary to rent a building called ‘Elgon Place’ in Upper Hill. They refurbished the building at a great cost to the Ex-chequer, but they never occupied the building, ostensibly because they said there was radiation even though the Communications Authority of Kenya and the National Environment Management Authority (NEMA) confirmed that there was no radiation at that time. In fact, the Kadhis Court is housed at the same place. How do you appropriate more money for courthouses to the same Judiciary that has wasted money for 10 years to this day? It is the responsibility of the Public Accounts Committee to ensure that as we appropriate money under the budget, we are not wasting the same money. If there is a State department that has wasted money, it should not be appropriated more money. As you recall, there was a Judicial Performance Improvement Programme (JPIP) which was funded by the World Bank, the highest amount ever given to a single department in the history of the World Bank. I assigned it myself when I was the Chief Registrar. To this day, they abandoned all the buildings that were supposed to be built with that money. Why are you appropriating money to State departments that have wasted money yet that matter has come before your Committee? On the issues of collecting revenue, the Kenya Revenue Authority needs Parliament’s support. We have a big challenge in this country. For instance, we have consolidators who bring different types of goods in one container. That is where we lose revenue. Actually, some of the richest people in Kenya have made money through tax evasion. Parliament tried to ensure that consolidation is for logistic purposes and not for tax collection purposes. What happened thereafter? Certain communities began to say that they were attacking their business community and that they were going to lose revenue. It became a community and a tribal issue. What did we do? We rendered the Kenya Revenue Authority impotent. They were not able to collect the revenue. Just to tell you how we lose money under this consolidated system, if I carry a backpack of iPhones into the airport, that is Ksh1.5 million of tax in that backpack. How much more is there in a 20-foot or a 40-foot container? Parliament is busy appropriating money, but it is not supporting the Kenya Revenue Authority to raise the resources. We know that when many of you want to import something, you bring it through Eastleigh. Right? How much tax are you paying? How is it that they can deliver a car part to you at Ksh15,000? You actually see economies and certain parts of this country being built on tax evasion. As we talk about tax, we must begin to ask ourselves the hard questions. Another issue that I would like to raise is that we seem to think that the budget process is the responsibility of the Budget and Appropriations Committee yet it is not. It is your responsibility, Hon. Mbadi. For instance, when I am importing a vehicle into this country, I insure it. If my vehicle is worth Ksh4 million, I will insure it for that value. We are required to use international insurance companies, but when I declare the value of that motor vehicle, I say it is worth Ksh1 million. How much tax are we losing there? One of my appeals to Members of Parliament is that we must begin to make it compulsory to insure imported goods with local insurance companies. This way, the Kenya Revenue Authority can question why it has been insured for Ksh4 million yet it is valued at Ksh1 million. If we do that, we will begin to collect revenue. This country is capable of raising Ksh1trillion just by correcting those two items that I have given. I have many others, but there is no time to mention them. If you look at the issue of ethanol which is causing a lot of challenges with illicit brewing in this country, the tax on a litre of ethanol is about Ksh320 to Ksh350. In Tanzania, it is Ksh40 while in Uganda it is Ksh60. So, what is happening? We are exporting the ethanol directly to either Uganda or Tanzania and thereafter smuggling it into Kenya. If the East African The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor."
},
{
"id": 1431449,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1431449/?format=api",
"text_counter": 3805,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Uasin Gishu County, UDA",
"speaker_title": "Hon. Gladys Boss",
"speaker": null,
"content": "Community (EAC) does not agree to one tax regime to eliminate that issue, we will continue to lose revenue. As we discuss the budget, can we also focus on revenue collection? We must learn that it is the responsibility of this House to protect the Commissioner General of KRA. Over the years, whenever there have been proposals to try and collect more revenue, we immediately move into our tribal cocoons because you will hear the people of Eastleigh saying, “ ohunamaliza watu wetu, oh you are finishing our people.” At one point, the people of Kirinyaga Road start saying, “oh, the business people from the central communities are being finished.” I recall a few years ago, in the last Parliament, it was shocking when some people came to see me and they said, “please help us.” I asked what the problem was and they said, ‘‘ unajua sisiwatu wa counterfeit tunamalizwa’ (we people that trade in counterfeit products are being targeted). I told them they were actually admitting they wanted support to be able to continue with an illegal trade. Parliament must begin to support revenue collection in as much as we so jealously guard our mandate to appropriate budget. I have much more to say, but I know I have to give an opportunity to other Hon. Members to contribute to this Motion. Thank you, Hon. Temporary Speaker."
},
{
"id": 1431450,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1431450/?format=api",
"text_counter": 3806,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Hon David Ochieng'",
"speaker_title": "The Temporary Speaker",
"speaker": null,
"content": " Hon. Members, join me in welcoming students from Moi Girls Isinya High School in Kajiado East Constituency, Kajiado County; St. Monica Munyaka Girls Secondary School in Kieni Constituency, Nyeri County, and Gaitu Secondary School in Central Imenti Constituency, Meru County. They are all welcome to follow our proceedings this morning."
}
]
}