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{
    "id": 1072101,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1072101/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 349,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Kipipiri, JP",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Amos Kimunya",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 174,
        "legal_name": "Amos Muhinga Kimunya",
        "slug": "amos-kimunya"
    },
    "content": "products into the market. We are talking about our interconnectivity with the rest of the region and as part of enhancing our trade capabilities, our airports, our ports and all the infrastructural development that we can see, including ratification of programmes. They are all over. However, we all know that these investments are capital intensive. We also know our limitations in terms of our revenue streams, including taxation. Kenyans are constantly saying that they do not want any more taxation, they do not want to burden their future generations. I believe that is within Kenyan people’s view. So, when you now look at the dwindling resources, unless we become slightly more innovative in terms of our financing mechanisms for development projects, we are not likely to achieve our objectives. One of the most innovative ways of financing development projects has been the Private Public Partnerships (PPPs), where a public project is partnered with a private sector with each deriving a certain benefit, so the private sector will put in their money, their design and expertise, and then run the project for a pre-determined period of time. They collect all the revenues which will obviously have to be agreed upon. At the end of that process, they will hand over the project to the public sector, basically releasing the money that the public sector would have used to do other projects that are perhaps more urgent. For example, right now the choice is between constructing our roads and undertaking COVID-19 mitigation measures. Do we do roads or pay for education? We pay about 27 per cent of our Budget to education only. That 27 per cent is derived from a constitutional commitment that all basic education is compulsory and free. We have to provide water in sufficient quantities and provide for people who are not quite endowed. All this takes money away into the recurrent expenditure. You find all these debates and we keep talking about it. Hon. John Mbadi keeps reminding us that perhaps we are borrowing to finance recurrent expenditure. What choice do we have? We have to do all these things because they are constitutional obligations under the 2010 Constitution. Before 2010 or 2013, we did not have to finance education beyond primary school. Now we have to do it up to A-Level. We have to do Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) institutions and we have to do capitation in universities, including private universities. All these are obligations that have come that need to be factored in the Budget hence it takes away money that would otherwise go to development projects. So PPPs then come in to provide this window for private capital to fund public projects, especially the ones with a long term quantifiable benefits to both parties. This is not a new initiative, it has been there from 2012. It was first captured in the Public Private Partnerships Act of 2018 which has become antiquated and require some modification given the hindrances and the lessons that have been learnt over the last eight years it has been in operation. The intent of this Bill is to streamline this area of law, to further encourage foreign direct investment in line with the Government’s industrialization agenda, in line with the Big Four Agenda, the 500,000 housing units that need to be done and the opening up of the agriculture sector for food security."
}