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{
    "id": 1213889,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1213889/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 260,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Emuhaya, ANC",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Omboko Milemba",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": " Thank you Hon. Temporary Speaker and the Chair of this Committee for bringing this particular Report. Article 206 of the Constitution establishes the Consolidated Fund in this country, where all monies that are supposed to be in Government go to. It also went further to create the Consolidated Funds Services (CFS). Those are the monies that will come from the pool where the monies for Government have gone to, apart from those that may be determined not to go there by this Parliament. In that Consolidated Fund and CFS, the highest expenditure from that Fund is foreign debt. That is why foreign debt then becomes an important topic as this Report has indicated. Further, the expenditure on foreign debt has sprung up between 2017/2018 Financial Year to the present day by more than 105 per cent. Those are the facts in this particular Report. We are now spending so much on payment of debt and it has increased within five years by about 105 per cent. That is why foreign debt then becomes a very important topic, because it means of all the funds from the Consolidated Fund, almost over 100 per cent of it is being spent on foreign debt and yet, we are continuing to borrow. This is what this Report lays bare. Therefore, it becomes very important that we control foreign debt so that we control expenditure from CFS to pay the foreign debt. Hon. Temporary Speaker, another thing that comes out very clearly here is the fact that, from the first charge of the CFS is not only the foreign debt but, in fact, there has been a misguidance in this country. I come from the labour movement and, sometimes, we are told that the Government is spending too much money on the Recurrent Expenditure. So then, we the workers of this country get worried, thinking that, maybe, many salaries are being paid. I want to put it to you that the payment on salaries has been reducing since 2017. It has reduced by about 13 per cent. So, when we talk about the Recurrent Expenditure, it is not the salaries as the normal Kenyan will take it. Payments on salaries are reducing, but what is really increasing and making the Recurrent Expenditure to increase is payment of foreign debt. Unfortunately, the payment of salaries for workers in this country has been lumped together with the payment of foreign debt. So, when it increases, people imagine that the salaries are the ones that are increasing. That is why this Report is here, and the whole country must know so that we bring this to an end. It is very interesting that this country does not even know how much it has borrowed. There are agencies in this country that are supposed to tell how much we have borrowed. Those are the Controller of Budget and the Office of the Auditor- General (OAG), who submitted that they do not know how much we have borrowed. He does not have the correct figures or all the disclosure on how much we have borrowed. There are levels that, that office reaches when no disclosure is given. That is the area we borrow through what is called guarantees. There are organisations in this country, like Kenya Airways (KQ) and others, which can just go and borrow and then the government guarantees. This Report should indict Government officers who are not giving complete disclosure on the guarantees of the Government."
}