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{
    "id": 1119304,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1119304/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 381,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Cherargei",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13217,
        "legal_name": "Cherarkey K Samson",
        "slug": "cherarkey-k-samson"
    },
    "content": "also the security and stability of this nation. If the economy is not doing very well, it becomes hard for the citizens to sustain their livelihoods. As we talk today, this unsustainable public debt continues to bite very hard to many Kenyans across the country. When you have a budget of over Kshs3 trillion and by the last projection before Coronavirus disease (COVID-19), the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) projected Kshs1.7 trillion in terms of revenue. We were paying close to Kshs1 trillion towards the public debt. It is very sad for the nation. Madam Temporary Speaker, we must agree, as a nation, that this is the right time to have a conversation about the public debt, which continues to grow daily and has become unattainable. It continues to affect the economy from the small micro- enterprises to macro-enterprises that we have in this country. The public debt is at Kshs7.7 trillion. Word has it that the National Treasury might approach this Parliament to raise the public debt ceiling to Kshs12 trillion. I am happy that I am among the few Senators who resisted the rising of public debt to trillions of shillings when it came before this House. As a country, we must agree. The President did indicate sometimes back that they were suspending all development projects because some of them were being financed by loans and heavy borrowing that was being done from commercial loans, Public Private Partnerships (PPP) agreements, among others from other countries. Madam Temporary Speaker, we must agree that as a country we have a problem with the public debt. It is sad, and I have read the Committee’s report, that the National Treasury is yet to submit a legislative proposal on various aspects of public debt that we have as a country. The fact that the country’s public debt as at now stands at Kshs7.7 trillion in terms of being owed to commercial borrowing from other countries is very unfortunate. We continue to raise public debt into around Kshs12 trillion. As a Parliament, we must be concurrent that when the matter of raising the public debt to Kshs12 trillion comes to this House, we must have passed these legislative proposals. We must have Public Debt Management Authority. We must be told why we are borrowing and for what. We cannot borrow to finance a recurrent expenditure. If it comes to the worst, we only borrow for development. Madam Temporary Speaker, as my Senate colleagues have said, we risk losing some of the strategic assets of this country when the loan is being defaulted. As COVID-19 has been in the country, the economy has been performing poorly. What happens and what is the fate of Kenya when, for example, Chinese come for their loan and we cannot pay them? We have Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA), Lamu Port among other assets that we have as a country. We even have foreign missions and embassies across the world. Could they seize those assets to repay off their loans? As a country, we are staring at a crisis. If this unsustainable public debt continues, it is a threat to the stability of the nation and national security. When"
}