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{
    "id": 1134112,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1134112/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 92,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Wetangula",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 210,
        "legal_name": "Moses Masika Wetangula",
        "slug": "moses-wetangula"
    },
    "content": "generate revenue, has degenerated from the pride of Africa to the shame of Africa? Do we really need this airline if this is what it is doing to the country? I salute Parliament for the last two years that both Houses of Parliament resisted and rejected attempts to handover the Kenya Airports Authority to the airline that is bankrupt so that the airline can survive on a falsehood and quicksand of money that it does not generate. We need to keep asking these serious questions. For how long will the Treasury be giving money to an airline whose only benefit to this country is unquantifiable pride and, that is all? There is nothing else we can talk about Kenya Airways. Today, the small airlines run by entrepreneurial Kenyans at Wilson Airport from here to Kisumu are charging Kshs4,000 one-way and Kshs8,900 return. Kenya Airways is charging between Kshs25,000 to Kshs30,000. You go to Mombasa and it is the same thing. Why are they fleecing Kenyans and remaining in debts? Yet, the National Treasury is still projecting that this is one of the public operations that needs to be taken into account by public coffers? This is not acceptable, and this House should take a very serious view of this. This is because there are countries that do not have an airline and their citizens travel at will. If it is not working, let us not bother about it. If it is working, let us hold on to it. As it is, Kenya Airways is no longer employing, paying or giving Kenyans service in the manner we expected. It is now time to urge the national Government to rethink. If you want an airline to bear Kenya’s’ name, give it. Condition whoever invested in it to call it Kenya Airways but let it not drain our resources that we need for other avenues of development. Mr. Speaker, Sir, this country is suffering under very heavy public debt. This House may remember when CS, Ukur Yatani came to office. He appeared before this Committee and told us that he was going to bring - indeed, he brought - an escalation and expansion of the debt ceiling. We haggled on this Floor and raised the debt ceiling from Kshs7 trillion to Kshs9 trillion or thereabout. His promise was that he was going to borrow more money to retire expensive debts so that we have cheaper debts. To date, the National Treasury cannot tell this country if they have retired any single debt of even one Kenya Shilling. They have not. This Committee has asked the Minister, if we could see the public debt register. We did not see it. Which are the expensive debts we saw when we appeared before our Committee? There are some debts from Europe including Germany, where we are paying 19 per cent. A country paying 19 per cent on a public debt is unheard of. When you borrow, you always pay just about 1 or 2 per cent above liable. You are talking of 3 to 4 per cent. We have debts that Mr. Ukur Yattani, the Minister brought to us once and told us that he was going to retire. Sen. Mutula Kilonzo Jnr., the able Chairman and I in the Committee have repeatedly asked the Minister where the expensive debts he has retired are. He has continued borrowing from the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the Chinese, the Japanese and everybody. In fact, it is a borrowing spree. This borrowing spree must translate into tangible economic growth. This economy will not grow - this House must appreciate it - if we do not grow and expand our manufacturing and export arm of the economy. This whole budget is"
}