Entry Instance

HTTP 200 OK
Allow: GET, PUT, PATCH, DELETE, HEAD, OPTIONS
Content-Type: application/json
Vary: Accept

{
    "id": 1119292,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1119292/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 369,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Cheruiyot",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13165,
        "legal_name": "Aaron Kipkirui Cheruiyot",
        "slug": "aaron-cheruiyot"
    },
    "content": "the East Africans. They know that we have built the superhighways and railway lines, but they understand what is happening. As a country, we should be cited at the East African Community Heads of States Summit because we have breached the EAC protocols on sound management of our economy. We have tricked the rest of the region. We know very well that part of our obligations to the Community involve first, running our economy soundly which is why we read our budgets the same day. Secondly, it is assumed that as a region we are not posing a threat to each other. If Kenya collapses, it will have a ripple effect on the rest of the region. That is why we signed that protocol, where it is believed that what we are doing that what we are doing makes economic sense. Unfortunately, this is the situation as it is today. As a House - and I said this a few weeks ago – of all the mistakes we have made, if we are able at least to find a solution to this debt issue, we will have cleaned ourselves up a bit and done something decent. The total amount of salary Kenyans have paid us for the 60 months we have been in this House will have been worth it if we, at least, present a roadmap. We must do it. When we sat down as a Committee and thought about these six months, it was the feeling of many that if we do the six months from October, it would be around March of April. We have been in this House before during an electoral cycle. We know very well it is the season everyone is running around battling to get the party ticket for those who come from regions where you have dominant parties. To get quorum to pass any business here is always a struggle. We must remain determined and call ourselves back when that comes to say what we are going to do about this issue. The figures are outstanding. We remember the proposals that came before us at that time saying, “22 per cent of our debt matrix is commercial. Therefore, grant us a chance to go and review it as we raise the ceilings, so that we retire old expensive debt.” Do you know what has happened? That figure has almost doubled to 36 per cent of our commercial debt matrix. We are paying interest as high as 17 to 18 per cent. The most astounding thing is that when we referred back to that Report, when we were approving that debt ceiling, they said they would present the debt register before the House. We failed as a House because we have not pushed the CS. Instead they presented us with an excel spread sheet with no agreements or anybody’s signature. That is what the Committee on Finance and Budget of the national Parliament relied on to calculate the debt level of our country. Who signed? Who do we owe and what did that debt do for the country? We were told that it was Exim Bank of Turkey. I am beginning to believe some of the stories that we read in the media; that part of the people we are borrowing money from are well to do individuals in this country. First of all, they mismanage the economy because they have the ways and means. Secondly, when you are in trouble, they actually lend you, so that they are assured. They have found ways of cleaning up their money. It is a big kickback that you have out there. The minute you lend it back to Kenya, you have brought it back on to the world financial system. Nobody will ever question you because it will be a repayment from the Government of Kenya (GoK). That is a reputable institution; nobody will question these things. It is a crisis."
}