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{
    "id": 1060105,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1060105/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 246,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Kikuyu, JP",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Kimani Ichung’wah",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 1835,
        "legal_name": "Anthony Kimani Ichung'Wah",
        "slug": "anthony-kimani-ichungwah"
    },
    "content": "If you go through the Report, you will notice a building like the one next to us, namely, Sheria House, that houses the Attorney-General’s Chambers. There is ongoing work there. Those are some of the buildings that were targeted for reductions. That will just create unnecessary pending bills in the coming years. Were it not for Commissioner Keynan moving an amendment, the building that the National Assembly has been constructing would get us into more pending bills, if we continue cutting development expenditure. I plead with the National Treasury to desist from cutting development expenditure in the course of the financial year because it creates a lot of unnecessary bills. Let me also commend the Committee because, the National Treasury had erred by going against the provisions of Regulation 48 of the Public Finance Management (PFM) Regulations in allocating money to new projects. My concern is that some of the new projects that you see are not of an emergency nature. That is why I commend the Committee because they declined the allocation of an additional Kshs100 million to a new project to construct a slaughterhouse in Marsabit. I commend the Committee because starting new projects that were not planned for in the course of the financial year is not only against the PFM Regulations, but is also a very bad step to take in terms of financial management. How I wish that new money was allocated to things that are of an emergency nature. How I wish that money was being allocated to ensure that Kenyans get the vaccine in their local dispensaries. How I wish that those people who have lost jobs were able to get money. When you see Members raising issues about NG-CDF, it is because that money will invigorate economic activities at the grassroots, give money to people at the grassroots level and, therefore, help our economy to grow. I only wish that the National Treasury will endeavor in future to ensure that any new money that comes in, in the course of the year, is allocated to new projects that are in strict adherence to the PFM Regulations, our own statutes and the PFM Act, and that no new project is initiated in the course of the year. You see a lot of money going to revitalise state corporations and others that are not state corporations. Kenya Airways (KQ) is not a State corporation, per se, in the strict definition of what ought to be a State corporation because there is private equity and private shareholders. Yet, we continue to inject billions of shillings to it. I indicated last week that we are injecting not less than Kshs28 billion to an institution or organisation like KQ that has cumulatively lost close to Kshs46 billion. What assurances are there that this Kshs28 billion will go to reinvigorate KQ and ensure that it returns to profitability? What assurances are there that, that money will not sink into the same hole that we have sunk Kshs46 billion? Those are the concerns that I want to raise and ask the National Treasury to be careful in terms of prioritising where to take money. We are in a very dire situation in this country. Our revenues are badly battered, not just by the pandemic, but also because the nature of our economy is such that, we have been over- dependent on a few revenue streams. When those revenue streams are battered, it affects all our national collections in revenue. Many of us subscribe to the narrative of a bottom-up approach because when you empower people from the bottom, you create a large tax base. The challenge we have had in this country is having a very shallow tax base. We continue to overtax a few million Kenyan taxpayers who are employed and are in other forms of engagement. Not more than 6 million people pay taxes while tens of millions of others depend on the few taxpayers. If we expand our tax base at the bottom of the pyramid, we will be able to create new taxpayers, who will then be converted from being a burden to the economy to being contributors to the national revenues. That is how we will be able to grow. 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."
}