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{
    "id": 1158614,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1158614/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 235,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Kiharu, JP",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Ndindi Nyoro",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13370,
        "legal_name": "Samson Ndindi Nyoro",
        "slug": "samson-ndindi-nyoro"
    },
    "content": " Thank you very much, Hon. Speaker. I understand most of my colleagues contributed last week. I thank you for giving me this opportunity because, maybe, I was attending to other issues last week. At the onset, supplementary appropriation across the world should be for the unseen. But in Kenya, it has become perpetual there has to be a Supplementary Budget every time we need the main Budget, most of whose breadth covers just the normal things. We should uphold what the supplementary appropriation across the world should cater for. That is for the unseen and some things that could not be put in the main Budget. Going through the many Supplementary Budgets, we have passed in this House in the recent past, there is always an increment of funds to the security sector. Even in the last like three years, there has been perpetually increment of funds to the Nairobi Metropolitan Services (NMS). If you look at the main Budget, we have always increased our budgeting in these two main areas. The reason I am speaking about these two areas is that, in this time, we slashed some of the money meant for the School Feeding Programme and increased money to the security docket. Looking through what we are increasing, we increased around Kshs500 million to Huduma Namba, a project that does not necessarily benefit the Kenyan people. Also, it would have been my wish that we looked at our farmers in terms of lowering the prices of fertiliser. As I said, when I was moving my amendment to this Supplementary Budget, we needed to lower the prices of inputs for agriculture, mainly fertiliser. We need to be seen as people who understand what Kenyans are going through. Coming here to increase money for Huduma Namba and at the same time not think about our farmers, especially by lowering the prices of fertiliser, is very insensitive. We as a country need to bite the bullet when it comes to pending bills. It has become a chorus that every time we are talking about the budget-making process and every time the President addresses the nation, we keep referencing pending bills. I do not think our words match our actions. It is because there are many vendors out there and people who have done business with Government who are wallowing in poverty because they are everywhere chasing their payments after doing business with Government. We need to look at this issue of pending bills with finality. I wonder why we are introducing new projects which are not of an emergency nature, yet there are so many people who have done business with Government and they are owed colossal amounts of money by the Government. The issue of pending bills is very important to the velocity and circulation of money in our economy. In the long run, this hurts our economy even at the bottom. The issue of debt that I keep talking about here is very important when you are talking about budget-making and even as we talk about supplementary appropriation. Generally speaking, the amount of money our country is using and we are appropriating just to pay interest rates on our loans has exceeded the amount of money we pay for salaries to our civil servants. As a House and nation, we need to be very mindful of fiscal prudence. We have over borrowed. I have said in this House that even after we input the cap of Kshs9 trillion, if we tabulate the amount of money that has been borrowed directly by the National Treasury, including the other monies like the fall-back position of the PPP and the guarantees, we are exceeding the Kshs11.9 trillion. This is unsustainable in the long run. As I said, we cannot be a borrowing nation. Many people in this House always argue that most economies actually borrow. Most of us cite the USA and even Japan. But, our conditions are different. In a country like Japan that has over borrowed by beyond 200 per cent of their GDP, they lend to other countries. 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."
}