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"id": 1032548,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1032548/?format=api",
"text_counter": 87,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Suba South, ODM",
"speaker_title": "Hon. John Mbadi",
"speaker": {
"id": 110,
"legal_name": "John Mbadi Ng'ong'o",
"slug": "john-mbadi"
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"content": "Looking at this Speech of the President which was delivered to this House, and it is the seventh speech since President Uhuru Kenyatta assumed office in 2013, he actually covered many areas. The Constitution, under Article 132, requires the President to address himself to certain issues one of which is the effort the Government has taken and the progress realised in achieving the principles and values as espoused under Article 10 of the Constitution. Further, he is required to address himself to issues of international relations: how we have engaged in meeting our international obligations as a country. He is also required to address himself to issues of security for our nation. The President covered many areas. In summary, the President talked about matters education, the Big Four Agenda, the youth, Information Communication Technology (ICT) and matters economy. Looking at the Speech of the President, he gave us a summary of his presidency from 2013 to date. I am happy that the President started with the most important concern that the world has at the moment, the most important global concern at the moment is the COVID-19 pandemic. He took us through the measures that his administration has taken or put in place to mitigate against the effects of this health issue. He also recognised the cooperation and the partnership between the Executive and Parliament, and hailed the support that the National Assembly, more particularly, and even the Senate gave in terms of approving the statutory instruments, which included the Public Health Act and also the Public Order Act. He also went ahead and thanked Parliament for helping his administration in approving the economic interventions which were meant to steady our economy. Hon. Deputy Speaker, you will remember that this House approved various tax measures which included the reduction of Pay as You Earn, Value Added Tax and Corporation Tax. These were meant to improve liquidity both at individual level, money to our pockets as individuals to enhance our purchasing power, but also the liquidity of the entire economy which included other measures like paying verified bills to the tune of Ksh13 billion, VAT refunds by Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) to the tune of Ksh10 billion, lowering the Central Bank ratio by one per cent and of course, lowering the cash reserve ratio by one per cent. This House also approved, after receiving the request from the Executive, an Economic Stimulus Programme of Ksh66.6 billion which was supposed to help in increasing demand for local goods and services, and cushioning the vulnerable Kenyans. I have cited this just to demonstrate the collaboration that the Executive has had with this legislative arm of Government to help mitigate the effects of the Coronavirus pandemic. That is something to praise. It is important to observe that the President recognised the role that Parliament played in that effort. It is not really disagreeing but I will take a different trajectory from the Leader of the Majority Party on the view that the President took on our economy or the state of the economy. I still believe that the President is shy of telling us the reality: the truth about where we are in terms of our economic health as a nation. There is no denying that this country, and alongside many others in the world, are struggling. Let us not shy away from this because that is why I see a lot of demands on our resources as a nation. People think that there is a pool of money somewhere where we can easily deep our fingers and sort out our problems. As a nation, we must agree, accept and come to the realisation that we are in total economic crisis as a nation. That is so because even the debt level that we approved the other day is almost hitting Ksh9 trillion. That is the plain fact. We borrowed Ksh784 billion from the World Bank. Fortunately, it was a concessional loan with zero interest, and I thank the National Treasury for that, and with a grace period of five years. However, it is still a loan. It has spiraled onto the loans that we had even before we approved that ceiling. Secondly, we also received US$1.6 billion, which translates to The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor."
}