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{
    "id": 1029493,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1029493/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 221,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. (Dr.) Mwaura",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13129,
        "legal_name": "Isaac Maigua Mwaura",
        "slug": "isaac-mwaura"
    },
    "content": "We have passed legislations here and so it is not a question of legislation. We worked on disaster risk reduction legislation here since the time I was in the 11th Parliament with Sen. Mutula Kilonzo Jnr., Sen. Sakaja and others, yet this is a disaster that cannot be contained because by the end of the day people do not care about regulations and procurement rules as provided for in Article 227 of the Constitution. What is most important is to amplify what is happening on the ground so that people can benefit. How do you explain what we have just been told by Sen. Wetangula here that somebody can go and take facilities from a private hospital like the case we saw in Isiolo where a whole governor went and took facilities from a private hospital, took photos, posted them and started saying that that is a public hospital. There was a funny story when the buzzword was for investors in the counties and investment conference. One governor, who I will not name, went to Oshwal Academy in Westlands and postured with some students who had gone for HIV testing, and said that he had just met investors in Nairobi. This is the theatre of the absurd. We need to look at ourselves in the mirror and ask ourselves: Do we really take ourselves seriously? We do not even know how many people could have actually died of COVID-19. I know we are very keen to start our referendum and the Building Bridges Initiative campaigns and I am sure here, we could argue who is for or against. However, at the end of the day, as a country, we are facing a monumental challenge. My fear is that the economy may collapse. If you look at our public debt ceiling, Sen. Farhiya, you can remember that it was Kshs6.1 trillion and it is now closing into Kshs7 trillion. We have spent a whole Kshs1 trillion in the last one year. We are going back to the IMF to borrow more. The gap there is about Kshs3 trillion. You have expended Kshs1 trillion. You remember we took the ceiling to Kshs9 trillion. Our Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita is US $98 billion, which is less than US $100 billion. What does that mean? Soon we are going to exhaust that; we will actually be a net economy, negative. The Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) is always reporting the slowdown of the collection of monies. They have missed their target. They missed their last quarter target by Kshs40 billion and yet, the government is going on with business as usual. We have not seen a lot of fiscal consolidation and budgetary restructuring that will enable us to have enough fiscal space to avert this pandemic. This Parliament ceded about Kshs2 billion. What is the net effect of that? Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, we need to wake up and smell the coffee. If this pandemic continues for the next six months, I do not think we will have an economy to talk about. Even the Kshs50 billion that we said that we are going to devolve, where will it be gotten from? Let us give more time to the Ad hoc Committee on COVID-19. As the Senate, we need to have a Kamukunji on this matter so that we can put our heads together, and in the same manner in which we gave the country direction when the National Assembly had gone to slumber and everybody feared to make comments, we gave the country direction. I think the Senate can still rise to the occasion and give a way forward. I support and thank you. 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."
}