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{
"id": 1395401,
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"speaker": null,
"content": "[The Temporary Speaker (Sen. Wakili Sigei) in the Chair]"
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{
"id": 1395402,
"url": "http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1395402/?format=api",
"text_counter": 258,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Sen. Mandago",
"speaker_title": "",
"speaker": {
"id": 13577,
"legal_name": "Kiplagat Jackson Mandago",
"slug": "kiplagat-jackson-mandago"
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"content": "Thank you very much, Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, for the opportunity to contribute to this Medium-Term Debt Management Strategy. My concern goes to two areas - on the issue of pending bills, both in the national Government and county government level. As we strive to manage debt, I think it would be prudent to ensure we also do not continue accumulating debts, particularly for county governments, for services rendered and goods delivered. As a nation that is struggling to create employment, we kill the same enterprises that have grown over time. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, I propose to this House that we make recommendations to the Controller of Budget to ensure that before the subsequent budgets in the new financial year are approved, there must be clear provision of funds for clearing pending bills that have been audited and found to be genuine, both in national and county governments. Our growth in Gross Domestic Product (GDP) cannot be achieved, if we continue piling pending bills and killing the enterprises that are supposed to grow the economy. Therefore, I strongly want to recommend and propose to this House that before the 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."
},
{
"id": 1395403,
"url": "http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1395403/?format=api",
"text_counter": 259,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Sen. Mandago",
"speaker_title": "",
"speaker": {
"id": 13577,
"legal_name": "Kiplagat Jackson Mandago",
"slug": "kiplagat-jackson-mandago"
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"content": "budget for Financial Year 2024/2025 is approved and funds released, there should be provisions for payments of all pending bills. The Senate Majority Leader has suggested, and all Senators have followed up to support that intervention request that the Controller of Budget (COB) shares the reports of counties so that, as the Senate, we are able to check on the spending of the resources. It has been found that a number of counties are making requisitions for payments of pending bills, but the same funds are being diverted to other causes. That is indicating that there could be a possibility of over-budgeting on own source revenue. Therefore, the reality of the resources available vis-à-vis what has been expended cannot be met. Two, as a country, in order to manage this debt, I welcome the Government’s move to work with the private sector, both nationally and internationally under the Public Private Partnership (PPP) to develop infrastructure that will require massive resources. Roads are very important for the growth of the economy of this country. If we want to open up all parts of this country to trade, business and growth in terms of industry, the role of roads cannot be underestimated. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, I therefore support the Ministry’s and national Government’s decision to engage private sector, both nationally and internationally, in development of tolled highways in the country. If we take Thika Road, for example, when it was being built - I support the Ministry that that Thika Road must be tolled. For it to realize what it was meant for, Thika Road must be expanded all the way to Mandera and to the Kenya-Ethiopia border for the sake of the goods that we are importing from Ethiopia. For your information, the beans we eat in Nairobi and probably, 60 per cent of beans supplied to this country are actually from Ethiopia. Also, 50 per cent of meat supplied is from those pastoralists in northern Kenya. We need to open up those roads. I support the Ministry that these roads must be tolled. We must engage partners who will help us toll all the major highways so that we can develop these highways across the country at the same time and realize equity. Sen. Tobiko can then be a happy Senator because, the highway to Namanga will have been expanded. Therefore, increasing the efficiency of transportation of goods and services from our neighboring country, Tanzania. At the moment, we are doing a lot of imports from Tanzania through Namanga. Expansion of that congested narrow road and increased population due to urbanization towards that part of the country, we will definitely, see an increase in volume of trade. In order to also ensure equity, we support the national Government and the Ministry of Roads and Transport in implementing this tolling programme of all highways. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, one of the major economic corridors in this country is the Mombasa-Nairobi-Nakuru-Eldoret-Kitale-West Pokot-Turkana Road all the way to South Sudan. If that road is tolled and made a four-lane highway, the time it takes to transport goods to South Sudan will reduce by two days. That means the volume of trade and the efficiency in delivery of goods will have increased and Kenya will benefit. It has been shown that every time we do a road, a number of small towns and markets begin to grow, simply because goods can now reach markets. There is a lot of 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."
},
{
"id": 1395404,
"url": "http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1395404/?format=api",
"text_counter": 260,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Sen. Mandago",
"speaker_title": "",
"speaker": {
"id": 13577,
"legal_name": "Kiplagat Jackson Mandago",
"slug": "kiplagat-jackson-mandago"
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"content": "production in the rural parts of this country. The challenge has been how to move those goods to the market. That is why cartels thrive in this country because, they take advantage of the poor infrastructure network and a farmer who cannot transport their goods to the market because of poor road networks. Therefore, they devalue the productivity of that farmer in the rural part of this country while, we all know that agriculture remains one of the sectors that creates the largest percentage of employment in this country. I, therefore, support the Ministry and only ask that this time round, those processes must be completely transparent. We do not want situations such as what we witnessed in the Nairobi Expressway where, part of Government funds had been expended in development of that infrastructure but all the revenue that is being generated is going to a private investor. Of which, we are not sure because records have not been availed to this House, whether what the Government invested has been subtracted from the total investments that is now being paid through the use of those roads. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, we also want to encourage the Ministry that as they seek international partners to develop these roads, Kenyans and locals with capacity should be given priority or at least, a certain percentage of that investment should be reserved for them. We have a very vibrant cooperative movement in this country. If you look at the resources the cooperative sector controls, it runs close to trillions of monies. Given an opportunity, these cooperatives can be part of those investing in this infrastructure so that Kenyans also benefit from these infrastructural developments. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, I will emphasise the issue of pending bills. The Controller of Budget (COB) particularly for county governments, should not release funds in the next financial year unless counties have made provisions. Some debts have remained unpaid in several counties for more than six years. There is no way you expect that enterprise to continue being in existence if its funds are going to be withheld, not because that enterprise has not delivered service or goods but simply because, they did the work, delivered goods or gave service during a term of a previous governor. The trend in this country where payments to suppliers and business people are hinged on which administration is in office should come to an end. Once goods and services are consumed by the public and the Auditor - General has certified that indeed that expenditure was proper, then the service or the goods should be fully paid for by either level of Government or the Government agency that has utilised that service. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, I support that we need to manage debt in this country and as a House, we still insist that we need a complete audit of all the debts we have in this country. It is not possible that we are still paying debts that were borrowed in the sixties and yet, we are not getting any records from the National Treasury of how much of these debts have been cleared, how many debts are due and how many debts are 10, 40 or 20 years old. The National Treasury cannot be just talking about debts. It is time they provided records of these debts because we could be servicing debts that we have already paid. I, therefore, ask the National Treasury even as we discuss this Debt Management Strategy, 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."
},
{
"id": 1395405,
"url": "http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1395405/?format=api",
"text_counter": 261,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Sen. Mandago",
"speaker_title": "",
"speaker": {
"id": 13577,
"legal_name": "Kiplagat Jackson Mandago",
"slug": "kiplagat-jackson-mandago"
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"content": "that we shall also be demanding to be given all the records of all the debts. Even if it will take this House five or 10 days to interrogate, we better begin having clean records of how much debt is there, what it is owed to whom, when was it borrowed and at what rate. Finally, Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, we witnessed short-term borrowing by the national Government, especially towards the run-up of the last general elections where the Government was borrowing debts that needed to be paid in less than a year. Any government borrowing debts that need to be paid in less than six months is equivalent to a government operating through a shylock. Any sensible government should have concessional loans where you are even given time to first invest before you begin repaying. However, we ask the National Treasury to find a way of rescheduling and renegotiating the terms of those loans so that the economy is not hard-pressed to service loans at the expense of also delivering services. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, I submit."
},
{
"id": 1395406,
"url": "http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1395406/?format=api",
"text_counter": 262,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Sen. Wakili Sigei",
"speaker_title": "The Temporary Speaker",
"speaker": null,
"content": " Hon. Members, there being no other Senator interested in contributing to this Motion, I call upon the Mover. Sen. Osotsi, I have a recording here to the effect that you have your three minutes in the County Boundaries Bill. Do you want to contribute to this Report?"
},
{
"id": 1395407,
"url": "http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1395407/?format=api",
"text_counter": 263,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Sen. Osotsi",
"speaker_title": "",
"speaker": {
"id": 13588,
"legal_name": "Osotsi Godfrey Otieno",
"slug": "osotsi-godfrey-otieno"
},
"content": "Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, I was to contribute to the Report on debt management."
},
{
"id": 1395408,
"url": "http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1395408/?format=api",
"text_counter": 264,
"type": "scene",
"speaker_name": "",
"speaker_title": "",
"speaker": null,
"content": "(Sen. Faki stood in his seat)"
},
{
"id": 1395409,
"url": "http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1395409/?format=api",
"text_counter": 265,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Sen. Wakili Sigei",
"speaker_title": "The Temporary Speaker",
"speaker": null,
"content": " Sen. Faki, resume your seat so that we allow Sen. Osotsi as the last Member to contribute to this Motion."
},
{
"id": 1395410,
"url": "http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1395410/?format=api",
"text_counter": 266,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Sen. Osotsi",
"speaker_title": "",
"speaker": {
"id": 13588,
"legal_name": "Osotsi Godfrey Otieno",
"slug": "osotsi-godfrey-otieno"
},
"content": "Thank you, Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, for that opportunity. Debt management strategy is a very important issue in this country. Therefore, this Motion is equally very important to this House. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, in this debt management strategy, there are three levels of debt. We have multilateral, bilateral and commercial debts. The multilateral debt is about Kshs3.1 trillion, which is at least 50 per cent of the total external debts. The bilateral debt is about Kshs1.4 trillion, which is 23 per cent of the debt. The commercial debt is about Kshs1.7 trillion, which comprises about 27 per cent of the debt. A lot of emphasis should be put on commercial debts because they are expensive. When they comprise about 27 per cent of the total debt, it becomes a problem. One of these debts is Eurobond. As a strategy, the country should seek to reduce the level of commercial debts so that the interest charged can go down significantly. During the campaigns, the issue of public debts was one of the very important topics that was discussed by both sides of the political divide and we agreed on nearly most of the things. One of the things was that we come up with a strategy of lowering public debt, issues like renegotiation of debts, restructuring et cetera . We are not seeing much of that. This strategy should be talking about that as well. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, you have noted that domestic debt has been going up. It is not a good sign because if we have an economy where domestic debt is going up, 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."
}
]
}