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{
    "id": 1201161,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1201161/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 241,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. M. Kajwang’",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13162,
        "legal_name": "Moses Otieno Kajwang'",
        "slug": "moses-otieno-kajwang"
    },
    "content": "Mr. Deputy Speaker, this Motion requires us to express thanks of the Senate for the exposition of public policy contained in the Address of the President. The key thing there is exposition of public policy rather that the politics contained in the Address of the President. The drafters of our Constitution envisaged that at one point, you might have a President who decides on what to tell Parliament away from the details of the Constitution and therefore in Article 132 of the Constitution, besides requiring the President to address the opening of every new Parliament, it mandated the President to address Parliament at least once annually to brief Parliament of the measures taken in realization of national values and principles. My comment on the President’s Speech will be on the policy aspects; what he said and what we think he ought to have said. In the circumstanced that many Kenyans find themselves in, the cost of living has skyrocketed. This last election was an election about the cost of living amongst many other factors. Promises were made to Kenyans that the price of basic commodities would stabilize. Assurances were made to Kenyans that the war in Ukraine and Russia had no role to play in the inflation that had visited the country. From August to date, the price of basic commodities has skyrocketed. The price of maize flour has gone up by 8.4 per cent. These are statistics from the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics. The cost of electricity has gone up by 20.9 per cent from August to date. The price of petrol has gone up by 17.7 per cent. The cost of transport has gone up by 25 per cent. The price of sugar has gone up by 19 per cent. Inflation is at 9.2 per cent; very dangerously close to the 10 per cent. This is the highest rate of inflation in the last five years. If the President’s Speech was supposed to be exposition of public policy, we would have expected that he would have given us a cogent plan to arrest the sky- rocketing prices of basic goods that would have been given us a formula to ensure that that is tamed. He did not do that. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, the elections were called with 7 million people having voted for the current Government and 6.9 million people having voted for the opposing team. The reason the President is described as the symbol of national unity, is that in our democratic process and experiment, there will be many people contesting for the same seat. At the end of the day, the person who is declared the victor occupies State House and assumes the role of the symbol of the national unity as well as the Commander-in- Chief of the Kenya Defence Forces."
}