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{
    "id": 1054681,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1054681/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 279,
    "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"
    },
    "content": "(IMF), the African Development Bank (ADB) and other concessional loans. There is a plan to borrow Kshs78 billion from the IMF at zero interest rates and with very considerate terms of repayment going for 30 years. This is information provided by the CS. We have the World Bank to loan this country Kshs85 billion at 1.4 per cent interest rate. There is the African Development Bank, which is likely to give this country Kshs22 billion and many others. If it is true that the Government is planning to borrow money through the Eurobond, then they are concealing information from us which would be very interesting. I do not expect the Executive to conceal information from the Budget and Appropriations Committee. I think when we next meet the CS, National Treasury, which is possibly next week, I am sure the Committee will take him to task about this report which I pray is fake news. How can the CS, National Treasury, appear before the Budget and Appropriations Committee and give wrong information about the borrowing strategy? I want to again repeat here as I conclude that in as much as we want to agree with this Division of Revenue Bill, which I fully support, we need to have more money to the grassroots. But something that needs to be repeated a thousand times for those who are responsible to listen is that mismanagement of resources in this country is causing problems big time. I know there is also mismanagement at the national level. We are seeing what is happening at the Kenya Medical Supplies Agency (KEMSA). I want to repeat this again. When you look at that lady, you really wonder whether she can move close to where a contract of Kshs7 billion is being discussed. This lady has no knowledge of the bank accounts of the company. I do not want to go there. If we want to move forward as a country, corruption must be condemned at whatever level. Corruption in the counties is costing this country big time. The money going to counties could help this country get out of the economic mess we are in. We will our young people who are energetic the moment we take money to the grassroots. Kenya is No.48 in the world out of 193 countries recognised by the United Nations in terms of population, but we are No.29 in terms of percentage of youthful population. This tells you clearly how exposed this country is. If we engage the youth effectively and put money in their hands, these are people who will definitely have increased expenditure because they need the money to spend. They are not people who will keep it. They will spend it whether on busaa or chang’aa and the money will circulate in the economy. The net effect of this is economic growth. You see we have a few individuals in the counties misappropriating the resources. They are putting up hotels which have no people to sleep in. This is because COVID does not allow us to sleep in those hotels. So, the hotels become huge white elephant projects. Everywhere in the villages people have huge houses which they do not even need. They have put them up using public resources. This is money that is supposed to help our youth come out of poverty. This is a crime that is bad in the eyes of God. I want to ask those people who are managing our resources at that level to please change their habits. On those who are responsible for oversight, personally, many of my colleagues and I have given up on county assemblies. What you see happening does not inspire any confidence. The Senate needs to come in and fill the gap where county assemblies should have been taking the lead. I see attention shifted entirely to the Senate, but the truth of the matter is that the people who have the advantage to continuously and on daily basis monitor what is going on in the counties are members of our county assemblies. Members of our county assemblies going forward take your responsibilities very seriously. If Kenyans have been electing people without capacity, it is high time we thought about the people 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."
}