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"content": "(Laughter)"
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"speaker_name": "Sen. (Dr) Oburu",
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"legal_name": "Oburu Ngona Odinga",
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"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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"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Sen. Kathuri",
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"legal_name": "Murungi Kathuri",
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"content": " Thank you for that story. Next is Sen. Oketch."
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"id": 1545135,
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"speaker_name": "Sen. Oketch Gicheru",
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"content": "Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, it seems that we were supposed to go to the other side where probably there will be some stones. However, I am glad you have come to me. I am certainly not a stone and I have heard about what Sen. (Dr.) Oburu has said. I am going to contribute more to what he said. The Mid-Term Debt Management Strategy (MTDS) is fundamental to budget making. I do not know why we are losing the script as a House to the extent that we can pass a Budget Policy Statement (BPS) before we pass MTDS. The BPS gives us a focus on what the Government wants to raise in the coming financial year. It gives us a projection. For instance, the BPS for this year has given us a projection that is going to inform the Finance Bill that we want to raise about Kshs4.3 trillion. There are gaps on where we are going to raise this money from. Therefore, where our ordinary revenue cannot help us raise that money, then it fundamentally means that we have to borrow. When we have to borrow, this is the suggestion that then comes with the MTDS. Ordinarily, what we are passing here forms a foundation for passing the BPS. It forms a foundation for which as a House and as Parliament, we can take control over the limits with which the Government can borrow. This is not just my wisdom or the wisdom of the Committee but also of our laws. The Public Finance Management Act (PFMA) Section 33, CAP 412A, requires that we look at the MTDS, so that we can come up with a legal framework from which the Government must think about a sustainable way of raising money. It is not only about the sustainable ways of raising money but also to look at the debt portfolio in such a way that it is going to inform what goes and what does not go into the BPS. This is in terms of the fiscal discipline of the Government. I dare say, and I am not a prophet of doom, that if we continue this management between the MDTS and the BPS, we might wake up in the next financial year with another Gen Z protest. We are going to be forced to have a debt management strategy in the middle of a crisis, and then we are going to start talking about fiscal consolidation. This is not something that we must take lightly as a Parliament. Through what we have proposed here from the Committee of Finance and Budget that I sit in, Parliament must come back and take control of the debt management in this country."
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"content": "(Applause)"
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"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Sen. Oketch Gicheru",
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"content": "Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, you and I are children of debt. We are born out of debt. There are two poises going on here. There is a debt that we are born into as a country that we must manage. Then there is constrained fiscal space where the Government of the day must run and might go into public borrowing. If we do not participate in that process, it becomes a problem. 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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"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Sen. Oketch Gicheru",
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"content": "I am, however, proud of this Senate. Immediately when we came to this Senate, we decided to review the Public Finance Management Act to come up with sustainable debt management. I remember we passed a law in this House that directed the National Treasury that if it is borrowing, we must first look at our debt portfolio and make sure that the Present Value (PV) to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of our debt does not go beyond 55 per cent. That is what we passed in this House. However, between June last year and today, our debt bumped to Kshs10.58 trillion. The PV to GDP ratio is at 63 per cent as at now. Some theorists in the National Treasury might come and argue that it is not possible to achieve a 55 per cent PV to GDP ratio of our debt stock because of some numbers they keep on bringing to this House in the Budget Policy Statement (BPS). They say that is a target that can only be met in the Financial Year 2028/2029. I am not persuaded with this. I am a student of the late President Hon. Mwai Kibaki's free primary school education. During his time, I never knew that I would become anything close to a Member of Parliament (MP) in this country. However, at that time, the PV to GDP ratio of our debt stock was at a whooping two per cent. That means there is something that has become rogue in this country. The debt of this country is not spent on development, but on the mouth of people in power. The money we are borrowing never gets anything done. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, how comes we are proposing to raise a variety of money to Kshs4.3 trillion in the current BPS? We want to burden the country again, that out of the Kshs4.3 trillion, the cost of our debt will be Kshs1.97 trillion. That means, if you round off that number, we are going to be paying Kshs2 trillion. We raised Kshs4.3 trillion to pay Kshs2 trillion in debt. Are we slaves in our own country? Are we fine being slaves in our own country? We have the PFM Act that has guided us that in structuring our debt. We must also look at how we make our Domestic Debt Market (DDM) sustainable. Hon. Sen. Mungatana has indicated that our DDM is currently depressed, bleeding and haemorrhaging. The DDM is completely unsustainable."
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"content": "(Applause)"
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"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Sen. Oketch Gicheru",
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"content": "Last year, I was in the Committee on Finance and Budget when we proposed that the only reason we will pass a BPS in this House is if the National Treasury will help the country go to a 50-50 situation, whereby the domestic debt will be 50 per cent and the external debt will take the other 50 per cent. However, on the report that we have heard now, we have 30 per cent for External Debt Market and 70 per cent for DDM. What are we doing as a House? Why do we sit and restructure debt and recommend certain numbers that can allow that we do not face crowding out of our businesses? The Government has realised that despite the fact that DDM is the most expensive compared to the external market, it is a very easy capital to come by and get into your hands. It is very easy for money to come from Equity Bank or the Kenya Commercial Bank (KCB) or Family Bank and then go to the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK). Since there is no automation, you can quickly get your hands in some monies here and there and it gets lost somewhere. How is this possible? 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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"content": "(Applause)"
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