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{
    "id": 1161478,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1161478/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 74,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Orengo",
    "speaker_title": "The Senate Minority Leader",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 129,
        "legal_name": "Aggrey James Orengo",
        "slug": "james-orengo"
    },
    "content": "As we move forward, I urge very strongly the Government to continue looking at the debt portfolio and to ensure we do not fall into debt and therefore, into competition with revenue that is available cheaply to entrepreneurs and Kenyans, generally. The Government should also compete with money available in the financial markets, with ordinary business people and Kenyans to the extent that banks would choose to lend their money to the national Government as opposed to making affordable financial allocations and meeting financial requirements of the ordinary businessman and citizen. Debt continues to be a major problem in this country. President Kibaki used to repeat time and again that a government does well when it does not borrow. When the Government borrows too much, the person who bears that burden is the taxpayer. At the same time, I appreciate that the country cannot also be at a standstill. There are infrastructure developments happening in the country at the moment that have to be done at some point in time. For Nairobi to be a hub like Dubai, Ankara in Turkey or Singapore, there has to be infrastructure. A lot of these nations that are so-called “tigers” are becoming hubs in the communication and transport systems that go across borders. For Kenya to be part of that hub, there are major developments that the country must undertake in competition with the other nations that are around us Rwanda is a small nation but it may overtake us. By some miracle because of the problems in Ethiopia, we have a great opportunity if at all that commitment in making Nairobi a hub continues. That can only happen if the communication and transport sectors and also the banking services meet the world standards. I think there is something good happening in that direction. Infrastructure is important. One does not want to live in a country in which-when you want to do business and want to get the next plane out, you are stuck in traffic for four to five hours. What is happening along Mombasa Road in terms of the expressway is a major development. Countries that have undertaken such major developments had to look for money somewhere in order to fund such significant projects. The issue of infrastructure started with the Grand Coalition Government and has continued to be a theme since then. If there is anything that the Jubilee Government can take home is within the area of infrastructure where they have done extremely well but at great expense. We have to pay for it. I dare say some of it is happening more efficiently in the last four years than in the first five years."
}