Henry Rotich

All parliamentary appearances

Entries 11 to 20 of 251.

• 13 Jun 2019 in National Assembly: Hon. Speaker, the Government has been supporting MSMEs through various affirmative action funds including the Uwezo Fund, Youth Enterprise Development Fund and Women Enterprise Development Fund. To increase efficiency and eliminate overlaps, I have consolidated the three funds into one to be known as Biashara Kenya Fund. The Fund will give special priority to businesses owned by youths, women and people living with disabilities. The regulations establishing the new Fund have been published after being subjected to stakeholders’ consultations. I will be submitting them to this House today. To further improve access to credit for SMEs, last month, we endorsed ... view
• 13 Jun 2019 in National Assembly: Hon. Speaker, the Government, through the Ministry of Information, Communications and Technology, in partnership with academia, civil society and the private sector has set up a programme known as “Ajira Digital Programme” whose aim is to bridge the gap between skills available and skills demand. A major objective of the programme is to enable over one million youths annually to be engaged as digital freelance workers. In order to provide stability for the youth engaged in this programme, the Government has proposed that the youth registered in the programme pay a registration fee of Kshs10,000 for the next three years ... view
• 13 Jun 2019 in National Assembly: Hon. Speaker, this registration fee will be paid to the Ajira Fund through which the youth-oriented programme will be financed for the benefit of our young people who need to be engaged in tangible programmes. In this regard, a framework for the registration of the Ajira members, the modalities of collecting the fee as well as the structure for the utilisation of the Fund will be put in place. This Fund will promote growth of local business that generate digital and digitally-enabled jobs. In this respect, I have set aside Kshs1billion as seed capital for the Fund. I encourage the ... view
• 13 Jun 2019 in National Assembly: Hon. Speaker, in order to take full advantage of the preferences and reservations in the Procurement Act and promote local industries through the ‘Buy Kenya Build Kenya’ initiative, we are in the process of developing a catalogue of items that are locally manufactured, assembled, mined or grown in Kenya and which will be given priority in public procurement. view
• 13 Jun 2019 in National Assembly: Accordingly, no tax exemptions will be provided for any items on the catalogue. In this respect, with effect from 1st July 2019, all ministries, departments, agencies and other public entities are required to give exclusive preference in procurement of motor vehicles and motor cycles from firms that have assembly plants in Kenya. This will go a long way in spurring the growth of local auxiliary industries and enterprises and create employment opportunities to the youth. view
• 13 Jun 2019 in National Assembly: Hon. Speaker, we have received numerous complaints relating to late payment, and even non-payment of suppliers by businesses and contractors who enjoy relatively superior bargaining positions. The most affected are Small and Medium Enterprises. To address this situation, I have proposed amendments to the Competition Act to empower the Competition Authority to deal with abuse of buyer power and ensure prompt payment to suppliers. The proposed amendments shall also provide for penalties for infringement of these provisions. The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposes only. Acertified version of this Report can be obtained from the ... view
• 13 Jun 2019 in National Assembly: Further, going forward, the National Treasury will endeavour to ensure that payments to suppliers of goods and services to the national Government are made within a maximum of 60 days. This will support our MSMEs and the business community. I expect all the 47 county governments to take cue from this and ensure prompt payments for all supplies delivered to their respective counties. view
• 13 Jun 2019 in National Assembly: Hon. Speaker, the Government will streamline the process of Pre-Verification of Conformity (PVOC), so that our business community stops suffering demurrage charges and other costs while clearing their goods at the point of entry. This has been caused by additional inspections of imports by the Kenya Bureau of Standards (KEBS) and a host of other agencies. Hon. Speaker, to address this challenge, it has been decided that once the PVOC has been done at the point of export and information relayed to our Customs and Standards teams, the same goods should not be subjected to further inspection unless there is ... view
• 13 Jun 2019 in National Assembly: The public sector wage bill continues to rise leaving fewer and fewer resources for development. Certainly, this is not a good practice and no meaningful development can be realised unless we reverse the trend. In order to contain the wage bill, I propose that we limit strictly the extension of service for the significant number of civil servants who are retiring after the age of 60 years. In addition, we will restrict new recruitment to key technical staff, security personnel, teachers and health workers. Further, a cleansing of the wage bill will be undertaken to root out ghost workers. The ... view
• 13 Jun 2019 in National Assembly: Expenditure on domestic and foreign travel has been growing due to frequent travels. To limit this expenditure, we are exploring the use of a more efficient cost cutting approach, including use of electronic cards system for all public officers travelling within and outside the country. This card would be pre-loaded with subsistence allowance to be expended by officers travelling on official duty on eligible expenditures only. view