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"id": 10531,
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"speaker_name": "Mr. Mbadi",
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"legal_name": "John Mbadi Ng'ong'o",
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"content": "Thank you, Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir. Let me also take this opportunity to thank and congratulate Mr. Keynan for bringing this Motion. This Motion is long overdue. Kenyans have really been waiting to see what Parliament is doing because their lives have become unbearable. The effect of what we have just seen in the recent past in the depreciation of the Kenya Shilling is not only going to be noticed in the short term, but it will be a long term. Apart from the usual day to day effect that we see in our lives, there will also be the effect on how much Kenya as a country will be paying from the loans that we got from various lending institutions. The loans that we got were borrowed in foreign currencies. Therefore, if the shilling decreases in value, then this will definitely have an effect even to the future generations. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, it is sad that when we started seeing the trend of depreciation of the Kenya Shilling, some of us took an opportunity to raise the issue with the Ministry concerned. That time the dollar was exchanging at Kshs80.9. The Treasury actually took six months to come to answer that issue and when they finally did, the shilling was exchanging at Kshs107 to the dollar. That is just an indication of how our Government is not responsive. I want to go ahead and just highlight some of the issues that I think should have been handled differently if this Government was serious in addressing the depreciating Kenya Shilling. The first one was the behavior of the Central Bank Governor. The Governor of the CBK gave mixed signals. It was really shocking that the CBK Governor, when Kenyans started raising alarm, said that he would not take action. This is akin to thieves breaking into your house and the watchman you have put at the gate telling you that you are on your own and he cannot help you. What would happen is desperation. This sent panic in the entire economy. After a few days, the same CBK Governor told this country that there were some banks which were holding the foreign currency. That again caused panic in the economy and many speculators came in to cash in and the result is what we are seeing. One of the reasons for the depreciation of the Kenya Shilling could be the increased demand on the dollar, but I keep on asking why this country should rely on the dollar so much yet there are other hard currencies. Why can we not diversify to the Euro, Pound or the other hard currencies, so that we can reduce the increased pressure on the dollar? It is also important that this country thinks how to increase the absorption rate of the donor funded projects. That would result into increased inflow of foreign currency and foreign reserves that we seriously need. We need to control inflation in this country if we have to reduce the pressure on the cost of living. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, a lot has been said about the increase in productivity not only agricultural, but also industrial. It is sad that the action that the Treasury has taken of late is like digging one hole to fill another one. If you were increasing interest rates, in essence you are going to decrease productivity in the country because investments are going to decrease and nobody is going to take loans. If you talk to investors, you will get the feeling that now they have shied away from taking loans. Many people who would have been investing are not investing any more. The effect of that is decreased investment, increased unemployment, increased poverty and more problems to the economy. We need to do the right things at the right time. We need to seriously focus on reducing the cost of doing business in this country so that we can increase our productivity. That is the only way we can do it. Countries like Rwanda have overtaken Kenya in terms of business friendly environment. What is happening in this country? We have people who pride to be professionals; the largest Government where Ministries have been split to an extent you would think that one has a very small area to focus on, but we just spend money paying salaries to these Government officers yet they have very little to offer. Is it a question of putting the wrong people in the wrong places? It is important that we think through even the personnel that we put in place. I have a feeling that probably we do not have the right people even at the Treasury and the Central Bank; people who can come up with concrete economic fundamentals to help save this country from these shocks. Finally, recently, there has been this talk about Kenya refunding money to development partners. These are other areas which would still have an effect on the Kenya Shilling. If we are refunding money, we are going to buy dollars to refund that money. If we are refunding Kshs3 billion, it means that Kenya is going to lose Kshs3 billion to the development partners thereby putting even more pressure on our foreign reserves. This will thereby put more pressure on the Kenya Shilling, increase inflation and decrease the value of the Kenya Shilling. Something needs to be done. With that, I join my colleagues in thinking that this House, being the House of the peoples’ representatives, has a duty to constitute a select committee and I hope that the 15 Members will go into the root of this matter, identify the causes and recommend to this House for adoption. If the Executive fails, this House cannot fail this country. Hon. Keynan with his team has a duty to help this country."
}