Abshiro Soka Halake

All parliamentary appearances

Entries 1491 to 1500 of 1750.

• 22 Nov 2018 in Senate: As a cultural matter tampon tax is a cultural discrimination against women. Menstruation is supposed to happen out of sight. It is a problem for the woman and she is the one to deal with it. That should not be the case. view
• 22 Nov 2018 in Senate: Madam Temporary Speaker, it is very sad for us to know today that we have 10 per cent tax on the cotton and 25 per cent on the perforated polymer. In fact, if one adds they will be surprised at how expensive local production would be. We say that our big four agenda is about creating an enabling environment for the manufacturing sector. It is also about our agricultural sector. What are we talking about if we cannot get the basics of these? view
• 22 Nov 2018 in Senate: Madam Temporary Speaker, in the recent months there have been activist around the world who have been prevailing upon the governments to get rid of tampon tax. I was privileged to be part of that campaign. I was very proud and I said that my country did not tax tampons. Little did I know that, yes, it does not tax importation. However, it taxes the more important part of it, which local production. Somebody pulled me aside and whispered in my ear. I had to go back on stage and apologise. In fact, we actually do the wrong thing in ... view
• 22 Nov 2018 in Senate: It was very embarrassing for me to have praised my country by saying that since year 2014, we had zero rated our pads, when, in fact, it was only the importation of tampons that had been zero rated. The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor, Senate. view
• 22 Nov 2018 in Senate: Why would we choose to kill local production, manufacturing, local cotton growing belt and all these things in favour of importation? Just by zero rating local production, we would be ticking off a lot of the boxes which would then contribute to the Big Four Agenda? view
• 22 Nov 2018 in Senate: Madam Temporary Speaker, many questions linger on this issue. Why would a product which women use because of their biology be taxed? Why would there be any confusion whether menstrual hygiene products are necessary or optional? Why would there be any confusion on whether tampons and sanitary pads for our girls and women are luxury or non-luxury items? Why should our bodies and our bodily function become a financial burden and a source of shame for us, as women of Kenya? Why is it that we choose to go and distribute these sanitary pads, and our girls line up to ... view
• 22 Nov 2018 in Senate: Madam Temporary Speaker, just this month alone, 1.6 million children are going to get out of school, and half of those are women and girls who have attained the age of puberty. I am referring to the Standard Eight pupils and Form Four students. From the 1.6 million children, half of whom are girls, who is going to provide the sanitary pads for them in January? Therefore, we are not solving our problems; we are not finding sustainable solutions; we are making sure that we just favour imports rather than providing solutions to menstrual health issues, providing sanitary pads and ... view
• 22 Nov 2018 in Senate: started to bring company registrations so that they can ask you to find tenders for them. What are we doing? In order to attain economic growth, the current scenario needs to change. We need to create a level playing field; we need to start bringing sanity to our economy. We need to ensure that our country has a lot of capacity. The human capacity in this country is next to none, but what are we doing? We are importing things that were probably done by dummies elsewhere. They are of bad quality, our own capacity is dying, we are not ... view
• 22 Nov 2018 in Senate: Thank you, Madam Temporary Speaker. I beg to reply. I would like to thank my colleagues Sen. Kasanga for seconding this Motion very eloquently and for giving further ideas as to what we need to do with it. I would also like to thank Sen. Seneta who has brought in a very important angle of mental and psychological torture of our girls especially as they go through their menstrual cycle every month especially if they cannot access good quality and safe pads. She also brought in an angle which I had not thought about but which is important in the ... view
• 22 Nov 2018 in Senate: Madam Temporary Speaker, Sen. Kihika has articulated the issue around affordable sanitary pads and the dignity of our children. This is a matter of dignity and the rights to a dignified existence by our girls and women. Therefore, issues of discrimination have been articulated very well by Sen. Seneta as well as Sen. Kihika. I will make sure, either alone or collectively with others, that we explore options for this to be converted into a Bill. This substantive legislation will make sure that we compel our country to ensure that our children get access to these products and that our ... view