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{
    "id": 1213856,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1213856/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 227,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Kinangop, JP",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Kwenya Thuku",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13380,
        "legal_name": "Zachary Kwenya Thuku",
        "slug": "zachary-kwenya-thuku"
    },
    "content": " Thank you, Hon. Temporary Speaker, for this opportunity to contribute to this maiden Report of the Committee. From the outset, I must convey my gratitude to the previous House which, in its wisdom, decided to create this Committee to look into issues of debt and privatisation. I support this Report. This is a well thought out Report. If the people who are supposed to implement this see the wisdom in it, we might address issues that would cure problems in the Consolidated Fund Services expenditure to the tune that is manageable. The CFS expenditures are just well stipulated. It is about pensions, public debt payments, the president’s and the commissioners’ salaries. From the foregoing, we have seen that the biggest share of CFS spending is coming from public debt. This is becoming an issue not just in Kenya but in Africa. I want to confine myself within my jurisdiction because we need to address this issue before it gets out of hand. Having a public debt that is consuming 88 per cent of our CFS expenditure is a cause for alarm. In fact, when we engaged a few agencies like the Office of the Auditor-General, we were able to gather that what has been reported might not be the total debt in this country. We realised that there is a lot of money that is committed or paid in terms of commitment fee of money that has been availed as debt that has not been absorbed. In this Report, there is a serious recommendation that within two weeks, the National Treasury files a report to apprise this House as to the tune of public debt. The issue of debt emanates from our budgeting system from budget formulation, budget making, budget appropriation and budget financing. That is where we incur serious debts. We have always put the cart before the horse. Just as my brother the Member for Molo has said, we need to relook into to the issue of the Budget Cycle so that we do not put the cart before the horse. We must think about where we are going to get the funding before we start appropriating any money. We will be making a huge mistake if at all we will take the route of appropriation and then the Finance Bill so that we can commit the taxes that need to be collected by this country. We will be left with a deficit that the Committee on Public Debt is trying to address. We will always be on a journey of wanton borrowing. 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."
}