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{
    "id": 1169594,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1169594/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 223,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Cherargei",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13217,
        "legal_name": "Cherarkey K Samson",
        "slug": "cherarkey-k-samson"
    },
    "content": "We need to tell Kenyans that if the debt ceiling rises, the cost of living will go up. The Energy and Petroleum Regulatory Authority (EPRA) will be disclosing the pricing of fuel in the country today, and it will go up. Everything in the Republic including school fees and the cost of doing business will go up. We must generate revenue. As a country, we have a deficit budget. The budget of more than Kshs3trillion plus is in deficit. Madam Temporary Speaker, we must look at the revenue that we need to generate locally to pay off this debt. The road to Shanghai is real. We said it here three years ago that the road to Shanghai is unstoppable and this has become a reality because of the debt that we have as a country. The reason this Committee has given us is not why we need to raise Kshs1 trillion. I voted against it the last time it came to the Senate in 2019. We were being told that it will sustain the country up to 2024. However, we are now being told that it is because of COVID-19 pandemic and that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has agreed. Madam Temporary Speaker, some of us are worried because it looks like we might be going back to the Structural Adjustment Programs (SAPs) of the 1990s, and I know Madam Temporary Speaker is conversant with those days. They want to take us back to Structural Adjustment Programmes. If Hon. (Dr.) William Ruto becomes the President of Kenya and Kenya Kwanza takes over Government, with the permission of Kenyans and God willing, the biggest challenge and struggle that we will face will be how to manage the public debt and restore the confidence of the public. That is why the National Treasury must be honest to the Senate. We have been fighting to get the National Treasury to come here and tell Kenyans what they are doing to manage the public debt. They should tell us about retiring expensive loans. They are taking commercial as opposed to concessional loans. The National Treasury has failed. It has not been open to engage the Senate and Parliament on public debt management. I hope that the Kenya Kwanza government - some of us will be part of it, God willing - will be honest on how we manage the public debt as per the principles of Chapter 12, Article 201 of the Constitution, on openness and public participation in terms of public debt management. Madam Temporary Speaker, my second point is on the issue of sustainability of the public debt. We are being told that we are in the red, but we can borrow because IMF"
}