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{
    "id": 1032699,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1032699/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 238,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Dagoretti South, JP",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. John Kiarie",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13322,
        "legal_name": "John Kiarie Waweru",
        "slug": "john-kiarie-waweru"
    },
    "content": "we are able, as a House, to extract some of this very critical information even from the National Treasury. Some of us would have been keen to know how this country is doing on the issue of the debt burden. I would have been keen to know if we can get the National Treasury to table contracts that we have with some of these international bodies. I would be very keen to see how we are doing with our debts with the Exim Bank of China and the China Development Bank. These two institutions carry the bulk of the Kshs6.7 trillion that we owe China. On this issue of international obligations, I would have also wanted to know how we are doing on our commercial debts. I would like to know if the National Treasury would make it known to us how much debt we have with, for example, the TDB, but that is not what I am going to dwell on. I just wanted to note that even as we speak about our international obligations, one of our biggest and crippling issues is the debt that we owe our international lenders and an update on the status of debt and the restructuring of this debt would have been a good addition to the Speech that the President made. In general, the President gave a good Speech, but it would have been a better speech in normal circumstances. However, we are not in normal circumstances. We are in a crisis. In fact, we are in battle for the survival of humanity. We would have been keen to hear what we are doing in terms of prioritising issues in this country. I believe the issue of COVID-19 takes precedence of any other issue that we are tackling today. The other issues we are talking about are about development, but there is no development for dead people. How are we prioritising our issues as a country? I would have wanted to see a more COVID-19 heavy speech, so that we are able to know how this Government is tackling this critical issue. Finally, I saw the President rather poetically giving us an amazing picture of where he sees the country going, which is amazing, because he likened himself to Prophet Moses, who on Mount Nebo was able to see the Promised Land."
}