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{
    "id": 1078736,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1078736/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 258,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Kipipiri, JP",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Amos Kimunya",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 174,
        "legal_name": "Amos Muhinga Kimunya",
        "slug": "amos-kimunya"
    },
    "content": "On sustainable inclusive growth, if we continue having inequalities—and this has been experienced even in Singapore, where you have migrant workers that were put in very chaotic living conditions—when the rest of the country had sorted out the COVID-19 situation, the poor had not received the same access. Hence, when COVID-19 hit the poor, it went back even to the rich. So, if we do not sort out some of these inequalities, the disease does not respect social status. It will hurt those who have and those who do not have. However, if we sort out the inequalities within the country, we will grow together as an economy. Another thing that has been highlighted within this COVID-19 Pandemic, on which we are doing better, is the issue of transparency and the war on graft. If China had become more transparent upfront on the transmission of this disease, if the doctors who wanted to say that there was a new virus in Wuhan were not silenced; estimates show that if the exposure of this information came out three weeks before, we would have saved about 95 per cent of the casualties. So, the whole issue of transparency in Government is being highlighted with this, and I see that coming out within the theme. As Parliament, we shall insist on getting it. We are not just giving out money. There is a commitment to building it better. It is not doing business as usual, but rather doing business in a way that will build our manufacturing capacity to ring-fence ourselves from global lockdowns. That will help us to make sure that we help our health facilities to ensure that we have equitable distribution. A time will come when we will start rethinking our politics of division, exclusion and competition for resources so that we focus on an economic agenda that will prepare our country to move forward. Even as I talk about this competition, I have in mind the fact that we are competing with other fund users. We keep hearing people say: “If you do not provide for the National Government Constituencies Development Fund (NG-CDF), we will not pass the Budget”, but we are small. We are only one of the users. I appeal to Members because we have done very well in terms of achieving our NG-CDF targets, let us continue to develop the country as we unlock the future potential by facilitating the Budget process for everyone else. As we talk, I believe we have enough money to continue. I am trying to cut short most of the things so that I can give Members opportunity to also speak. I want to briefly speak on the issue of trilemma that is now facing Finance Ministers across developing countries. The COVID-19 Pandemic has brought in extra demands for spending to stimulate the economies as they respond to the pandemic and thus extra money is required. It also means that, because businesses are down, the revenues are depressed or at best they are stagnant. There is a disclaimer that people are against borrowing. Trying to reconcile these three issues is difficult. More spending is required. There is less money available through revenues and restrictions on spending. As Parliament, we need to open our minds and stop listening to civil societies who think that borrowing is evil. We need to encourage students when they are going to university to borrow loans from the Higher Education Loans Board (HELB) to finance their education. We should be encouraging the country to borrow to finance the 27 per cent that we are spending on the education of our children. We should not feel that borrowing is just for capital projects. We should even borrow for all the Article 43 commitments that we have to give to the people of Kenya. It is something that our Parliament will start thinking of. We are soon going to hit and exceed our debt ceiling. Straight-jacketing ourselves and saying that we are not going to borrow beyond the Kshs9 trillion debt ceiling would mean that we are not going to spend anymore, yet we are not going to raise revenues. That way, we will get this country into a stagnation mode. Reviving a stagnant economy is more expensive than what we need to do. We need to focus on the cost of that debt and not the amount. 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."
}