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{
    "id": 1216866,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1216866/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 147,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Kikuyu, UDA",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Kimani Ichung’wah",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "Hon. Speaker, I also rise to support this Motion and I thank the Budget and Appropriations Committee and, by extension, the Debt Committee for the splendid job that they have done over a very short time. These Supplementary Estimates come at a very good time for the country and for us, as the Members of Parliament. This is because we were elected into this Assembly as the 13th Parliament to resolve issues that are of concern to the Kenyan people. There is no greater issue of concern to the people of this country today and globally, other than the rising cost of living. This rise in the cost of living is aggravated by the drought situation. We have been told by many players that this is the worst drought that this country has had in the last 40 years. This tells you that the challenges that are ahead of us are quite enormous. It has also been mentioned by the Leader of the Minority Party and the Chairperson of the Budget and Appropriations Committee that the rise in global inflation is because of not just the global warming, but also the Russian-Ukraine conflict that has disrupted supply chain of manufactured and food items, including our own supply of wheat and other food items around the world. This has left us under a very strenuous situation, as a country, and we have a huge responsibility as leaders to work together towards alleviating the problems that face our people. I implore all Members of this House - this House being the budget-making House - to rise to the occasion, work and act together to ensure that we have in place policies that are sustainable, not short-term, very costly, one-off mega budgetary expenditures that we witnessed in the dying moments of the last regime. What Hon. Opiyo Wandayi has said is true, that it was a blatant abuse of Article 223 of the Constitution. Part of that came under the pretext of dealing with the high cost of living. What did we do? We embarked on fuel subsidies that were costing this country to the level of Ksh60 to 70 billion a month. There were also food subsidies and consumer subsidies. Let me draw your attention to a Report in this Budget. If you read through the Report on Page 5 on the expenditures under Article 223, the Budget and Appropriations Committee has enumerated Ksh120 billion spent under Article 223 of the Constitution and as outlined in the Third Schedule, has allowed these expenditures to be approved by this House. Part Two of that Report speaks to some Ksh10.091 billion also spent under Article 223 of the Constitution, as outlined in the Fourth Schedule, which the Budget and Appropriations Committee has recommended that this House rejects. I, therefore, want to agree with the Budget and Appropriations Committee that not everything that is paid under Article 223 is bad, and the law is clear on what ought to be paid and what cannot be paid under Article 223 of the Constitution. Part of what the Budget and Appropriations Committee is recommending for disapproval are payments of some Ksh4 billion that you find in the books that related to the maize subsidy programme, where unga was to be subsidised and supplied to Kenyans at a cost of Ksh100. Majority of Kenyans will tell you that they never saw that unga in their shops or in the kiosks in their neighbourhoods. Kenyans did not only fail to find the unga, but millers were never paid. Today, millers are still pursuing the Government for payments for that unga subsidy programme. Those monies were appropriated and spent, and you are left to wonder who were paid. The Ksh60 billion fuel subsidy was marked with very high-level corruption. That is why I want to support the Leader of the Minority Party that the relevant House Committees have a huge responsibility. I can see Hon. John Mbadi, Chairperson of the Public accounts Committee (PAC), looking at me, and I saw how keenly he listened to his Leader of the Minority Party. These House Committees have a huge responsibility, because the Budget and Appropriations Committee has recommended, on page four, that the Office of the Auditor- General undertakes an audit of expenditures granted under Article 223 of the Constitution for 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."
}