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"speaker_name": "Sen. Oketch Gicheru",
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"content": "Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, you asked me what my point of order was when Sen. Orwoba was just about to conclude. Sometimes, I wish you would accede the courage of just giving us this chance because sometimes there are some pronouncements that are made in this House that do disrespect your Chair. You have ruled a number of times that in this House there is no term called the “handshake” Government. I want to encourage some Members of this House that we are at a point where the country is trying to move forward. We have seen the spirit of bipartisanship in several instances, including last week when we exercised our rights and our responsibility as a House with respect to the Kisii impeachment case. You saw amazing bipartisanship when this House rose above any kind of party positions to speak to the nation on some issues. I want to encourage my sister, Sen. Orwoba - through the Chair because now I missed the point of order - that these statements that tend to polarize the House are very unnecessary, especially when you look at what we are discussing now, which is the issue of managing our debt as a country. This is a very important issue that I wanted to chime in. I would have wished to have spoken almost last on this matter, given that I sit in that Committee that drafted this report with the diligence and keenness it deserves. I have seen several concerns being raised in the House; some from my side of the House. I heard Sen. Sifuna talking about the issue of including the voices of the ICPAK in the conversation that applies to this debt management strategy as well as other Senators from the other side, including Sen. Cherarkey who raised the same. As a Committee, we did a lot of work in trying to consider a number of these ideas. We find ourselves in an important place as a country. We need to rethink almost every single time, almost every single month how we manage our debt. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, when you are faced with an accumulation of debt to the level that we see our country being faced with, the most obvious strategy is always fiscal consolidation. The idea is that you must contract your fiscal space. There are several strategies that the committee pondered in the response to the National Treasury. The National Treasury composition is always a hybrid one. However, given what we are facing in the country today, it is either you choose to cut your expenses as a Government or you are faced with the other angle of increasing taxes. The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Director, Hansard and AudioServices, Senate."
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"speaker_name": "Sen. Oketch Gicheru",
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"content": "Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, you have seen that from last year to now, the fiscal consolidation structure that we have faced as a country is that of increasing taxes. Now, the problem with this is that the moment you take that direction of increasing taxes over reducing expenditure, then the population is bound to suffer. It is like having a calf and you are trying to get the milk from the cow. You then take even the last bit of the milk that the calf is supposed to survive on so that you cannot milk the cow the next day. As we are having a conversation around this mid-term debt management strategy, the Senator who moved this Report, which is our report as a committee, Sen. Faki, had talked and alluded to so many parts of what constitutes the strategies that the Government is trying to put in place. Those that we saw as a committee that were important to this particular Report to the House. My conscience will not rest if I do not prick the conscience of the Senators to be able to start thinking about other ways of ensuring that there is proper fiscal consolidation in this country. This is important because this mid-term debt management strategy comes at a time when we have just passed the BPS. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, when you look at the BPS, there are some areas that we are going to spend money on in this year’s budget. Those are the areas that I think we could rethink, especially on what we want to spend on. I know Sen. Olekina did allude to this, but I wanted to give it a perspective. For instance, if you talk about the budget that we are going to have in the State House of Kshs352 billion, not Kshs364 as that is what passed in the BPS--- I just wanted to inform my brother Sen. Olekina that it was Kshs352 billion. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, this almost averages an expenditure of between Kshs800 million to Kshs1 billion a day in one single function. That kind of spending is so huge and those are areas that we can easily contract our budget in terms of our fiscal deficit. Despite the fact that our fiscal deficit is injuring the country, it is actually manageable; that is why we use the words ‘sustainable debt management’. If you think about it, there have been pronouncements from the Executive both in the previous Government and in this Government, that in this country, we are losing Kshs2 billion every day to corruption. If you do the maths, that means in the whole year, we are losing exactly the Kshs700 billion that we want to go out there and borrow. Why are we losing money as a country? Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, we are losing that money in areas of procurement by the Government where you find that in procurement offices, things are constantly inflated. This one you see with procurement officers and you see them in national Government as well as in county government. Therefore, we end up losing so much money as a country to the extent that if we were to deal with the menace of corruption in this country--- I have seen in some counties, a simple budget such as a budget of domestic travel and subsistence and sometimes hospitality skyrocketing to unimaginable numbers. If there was a way of being able to control that, then you can ensure there is a fiscal consolidation--- The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Director, Hansard and AudioServices, Senate."
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"speaker_name": "Sen. Wakili Sigei",
"speaker_title": "ADJOURNMENT The Temporary Speaker",
"speaker": null,
"content": " Hon. Members, it is now 6.30 p.m. time to adjourn the Senate. The Senate, therefore, stands adjourned until tomorrow Wednesday, 20th March, 2024 at 9.30 a.m. Sen. Eddy, when we resume tomorrow, you will still have 12 minutes of your time to contribute to the Motion."
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"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Sen. Wakili Sigei",
"speaker_title": "ADJOURNMENT The Temporary Speaker",
"speaker": null,
"content": "The Senate rose at 6.30 p.m."
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"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Sen. Wakili Sigei",
"speaker_title": "ADJOURNMENT The Temporary Speaker",
"speaker": null,
"content": "The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Director, Hansard and AudioServices, Senate."
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"speaker": null,
"content": "PARLIAMENT OF KENYA"
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"speaker": null,
"content": "THE SENATE"
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"speaker": null,
"content": "THE HANSARD"
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"speaker": null,
"content": "Wednesday 20th March, 2024"
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"speaker": null,
"content": "Morning Sitting"
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