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{
    "id": 1082987,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1082987/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 226,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Garissa Township, JP",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Aden Duale",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 15,
        "legal_name": "Aden Bare Duale",
        "slug": "aden-duale"
    },
    "content": "to close to 10 million Kenyans. We want to see that money buying vaccines and 10 million Kenyans getting the jab. We do not want monkey business. The World Bank has today given us Kshs14 billion to buy vaccines. In the 2021/2022 Budget, we have allocated Kshs14 billion towards vaccines. That is equal to Kshs28 billion. When you add the Kshs7 billion in the Supplementary Appropriations Bills, it comes to Kshs35 billion allocated towards the purchase of vaccines. That will ensure that close to 70 per cent of Kenyans are vaccinated. We are going for elections. We want Kenyans to be vaccinated so that we go and sell everything to them, including the hustler economic model. We want to go and sell our policies. We want to go and sell the bottom-up economic model. In Washington, people are not wearing masks because the United States of America has vaccinated its people. China has vaccinated 1 billion people. Second and most important, the Cabinet Secretary for the National Treasury stood on the Floor of this House and went on record that by the end of tomorrow, all pending bills must be paid. We do not want a Government of deceit and lies. You cannot pay pending bills, even for the National Assembly, if you have not allocated money towards that. I want us to be told what the amount of money is. Every accounting officer who appears before the Public Accounts Committee knows that there is a huge paragraph known as pending bills. I am sure the Chairperson, Hon. Wandayi, would agree if he was here. A pending bill is a debt owed by the Government on behalf of the people of Kenya. The Government is ready and has committed to pay the debts it owes the Chinese. It pays the debt it owes the World Bank and all multinationals. A debt is a debt. A pending bill is a debt. The Government must pay back the money that it owes to Kenyan citizens. Our economy can only improve and our people’s lives can only change if the monies of Kshs4 million, Kshs5 million and Kshs10 million that the thousands of small and medium traders in the so-called hustler world are owed by the Government are paid. The Government is only paying the big multinationals. It is paying the big Chinese companies who are building the Expressway and the roads. What about the mamas in Gikomba? What about Kenyans who are supplying computers? You know that Muslims do not publicise funerals. You die and within the next two hours, you are sent to go and live with your god and argue your case. If you open a newspaper today and look at the number of pages set aside for auctioneers and the number of Kenyans who have died from COVID-19, they have increased. The number of pages that Kenyans pay for funerals announcements is equal to the number of pages paid for by auctioneers. Auctioneers are selling the properties of innocent Kenyans. We want to tell the Cabinet Secretary for the National Treasury that if you have made a commitment to the country in this House, please, ask governors to pay the pending bills which is money owed to Kenyans. Ask your accounting officers. They all fall under you. Please, pay Kenyans their money. When money is paid to those Kenyans, the economy will grow and expand. They will pay their taxes and school fees. They will inject more liquid cash into the economy. As I conclude, the biggest hurdle and threat to our economy, more so, the more resilient informal sector which is made up of the small and medium enterprises, people who make between Kshs10 million to Kshs200 million and do business, is the pending bills that are owed to them by the Government. The Government debt to them makes up 70 per cent of the pending bills. I support the Bill. Going forward, this House should not be used as a rubberstamp. Bringing a Supplementary Appropriations Bill at the tail-end of the financial year with two days left…I hope that we will finish today. The Directorate of Legal Services and Clerk’s office will make the vellum at night. Maybe, the President will sign the Bill tomorrow on 30th June 2021. He has no choice. If the President signs it tomorrow, the Cabinet Secretary (CS) will have 15 days until 15th 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."
}