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"id": 1216896,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1216896/?format=api",
"text_counter": 177,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Emuhaya, ANC",
"speaker_title": "Hon. Omboko Milemba",
"speaker": null,
"content": "privy to the Report by the Public Debt and Privatisation Committee, the ratio of salaries has reduced. What is making this recurrent expenditure appear very big is because the salaries have been put together with the payment of loans in the Consolidated Fund Services (CFS), like he explained. So, we are doing well in terms of the salaries but, because they are together with payment of foreign debt, we look like we are doing very badly in recurrent expenditure. Hon. Temporary Speaker, let me move to the issue of borrowing. I want to thank the Chairperson of this Committee, because there has been a feeling in this country that we should make our borrowing be at the level of America and Japan; and that we should remodel our borrowing from fixed positions which we did in the last Parliament at Ksh10 trillion to adopt the debt GDP ratio, as is done by Americans and Japanese. However, the Mover came out clearly to explain that we cannot go that direction because Kenya does not have any countries it has lent money to. Therefore, when you see those big countries lend money outside, they also have stocks from which they get profits from. This feeling that we change the way we shall be borrowing our money so that our borrowing is fixated to the ratio of the debt versus the GDP is something that we should not do. I think they also spoke about usage, and so on and so forth. Let me speak on the issue of Article 223, which he was able to speak about elaborately in this Report. This has been spoken on by other Members, where the Government undertakes to spend too much money without the approval of Parliament. Ordinarily, Parliament is supposed to be the supreme organ which should give permission to any Government spending. I know that there are certain limitations as to what we taught as Limitations of Parliamentary Supremacy. I find Article 223 as one other level that limits parliamentary supremacy, and like the Chairperson put it clearly, we need to tighten the nozzle on Article 223. I also thank him greatly because this is the first Chairperson of Committee on Budget and Appropriations within Government who has asked Parliament to tighten the nozzle on Article 223. Anybody in Government would wish that the nozzle on the said Article is let loose so that, in the same way the Leader of the Majority Party has spoken on – that on the night after elections people were looting the coffers – the Government in power can also use that Article. I want to ask the House in totality and, more so, the Leader of the Minority Party who has since left, that this is something that we should do in a bi-partisan manner and make sure that we tighten the nozzle on Article 223 so that there is no wastage that is being done by those in power. The Ksh15 billion on fertiliser has been clearly explained by the Mover. Furthermore, this budgetary proposal has been appropriated in such a way that we put more money on subsidies for production and not subsidies for consumption. The risk of putting subsidies on consumption is that you will always remain in the economic hole of consuming. By putting this subsidy on production, it means that after a short while we shall be able to get out of the hole and, therefore, the economy will stabilise moving forward. I want to commend this Supplementary Budget for that. We must face the music. We should not worry or be in a hurry to implement quick remedies by putting subsidies on fuel, unga, or cereals, since they would be short-lived, unless as the Chairperson has mentioned, there are safety nets that must be put in place to protect those who are starving. In fact, if you examine this Supplementary Budget, funds have been allocated for students in the ASAL regions who participate in a feeding programme, while funds have also been allocated for those who are facing hunger in different parts of the country and require temporary safety nets. After that, we should implement long- term interventions. No one has spoken on this, but let me speak on it. The Chairperson spoke on Regional Development Authorities. The age of the Regional Development Authorities may have passed after all. We have the likes of Lake Basin Development Authority, Ewaso Ng’iro North Development Authority and others. Those institutions served their purpose when they were created. But currently, those are organisations that are gobbling Government and taxpayers’ money because running them is very expensive. Unlike what we were told, some of them are 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."
}