Entry Instance

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

{
    "id": 113935,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/113935/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 281,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Mr. M’Mithiaru",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 72,
        "legal_name": "Ntoitha M'mithiaru",
        "slug": "ntoitha-mmithiaru"
    },
    "content": "I wish also to congratulate the Minister for Finance for his exposition of the economic stimulus package, which actually endeared him to all MPs, only that the take- off has been very slow, indeed. I think we are yet to hear where a particular project has taken off, save for a few areas where the fish ponds have been created. But above all that is that we still have relics of corruption of yesteryears in the name of the District Road Engineers who are embezzling public funds left, right, and centre. Today, under the stimulus package we have the bills of quantities that are being presented. A case in point is where you have a Public Works Officer who presents a bill of quantities to construct a classroom and gives a figure of Kshs1.2 million. These are classrooms we are putting up with CDF money at Kshs400,000. So, it is even an issue--- We may see as if the stimulus package has big amount of money, but it may not do a lot if public officers are allowed to do things the way they are doing them now. On the issue of spurring our own economy, the president talks of how the Government is going to reduce the interests rate. I commend the Central Bank of Kenya in this respect; they have taken steps and prevailed on the banks to reduce the lending rates, but the banks have not heeded to that. Having been a banker myself, I do remember that banks used to practise policies from the CBK through what was called “a moral situation”. For example, there were times when banks were supposed to lend 17 per cent of their total deposist portfolio to the agricultural sector. Today you find that the banks are reluctant to reduce the interest rates, yet the same bank that is lending at 18 percent pays the saver at 4 or 5 percent, a margin that is unbearable considering that these are banks that are making huge profits. We have seen the balance sheets and all that. If you are a poor saver, even if you go to the bank to get even a statement of account, you are charged Kshs200. So this is an area we would urge the Government to move into, even if it means an action that will prevail on the banks to ensure that the rates are affordable; we know the banks are the right hand of any economy, and if credit is not affordable then we are not really spurring any growth at all."
}