Entry Instance

HTTP 200 OK
Allow: GET, PUT, PATCH, DELETE, HEAD, OPTIONS
Content-Type: application/json
Vary: Accept

{
    "id": 1213886,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1213886/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 257,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. Abdikadir Mohamed (",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "Lagdera, ODM): Thank you, Hon. Temporary Speaker, for giving me the opportunity to contribute to this very important debate on the Consolidated Fund Service expenditures. About 68 per cent of the Consolidated Fund is used to offset debts. We only remain with 32 per cent of our Consolidated Fund to fund all the other activities. This country is supposed to borrow about Ksh837 billion this year. Our Development Expenditure is approximately Ksh610 billion. That means that we are using loans to develop and over Ksh230 billion to finance our Recurrent Expenditure or repay loans. It is like we are taking loans to pay other loans. If we do not improve our revenue or increase our productivity as a country, we will go the way of Ghana, which defaulted in paying off its foreign debts, and that will be too bad for our economy. Bureaucrats or Government officers do not look at the conditions attached when they borrow loans. They just sign for the loans and yet, the people giving the loans have such hard conditions such that even implementing a project is a problem. For example, there is a project in my constituency and other parts of Garissa County called the Kenya Development Response to Displacement Impacts Project (KDRDIP). This project is being financed by the World Bank and has been continuing for five years. However, the problem is that the World Bank wants to micro-manage it. With every small misunderstanding, they want the bank to intervene and threaten to cancel the projects, and this is money that has been given to us as a loan. It is not their money. Why do they want to micro-manage a project in Lagdera Constituency? Why do they have to threaten us with the cancelation of the loan, which they have already disbursed to us? What does a very small misunderstanding or somebody writing something which could be a lie about the project have to do with it? So, I urge the Government that whenever we take a loan, we must look at the conditions attached. That is because some of the conditions are so punitive that implementing the project is a problem. For example, the project I am talking about is by the World Bank loan that was given to us. The World Bank wants to micro-manage the project that we are doing. They even want to micro-manage the subordinate staff. We do not have a say and yet, this is a loan. So, let us look at the conditions of the loans when we are borrowing. This country has been having a very high appetite for loans. That is because if we do not take loans, we will not be able to develop. If we do not borrow, we will not even be able to pay 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."
}