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{
    "id": 1217623,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1217623/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 163,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Kiharu, UDA",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Ndindi Nyoro",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": " Thank you very much, Hon. Speaker for giving me this opportunity. I implore Hon. (Dr) Pukose to desist from confusing the Hon. Speaker. Hon. Speaker, as I reply, I just wish to mention one thing that was mentioned by Hon. Opiyo Wandayi, who is a very objective Member of this House, who is playing his oversight role. It is on the cost of electricity in this country. There are many considerations that we have to look into as an economy. The major part of the cost of power and energy is based on demand. We have increased our capacity to absorb extra energy. Currently, we have installed capacity of around 3,000 Megawatts. For an economy to access cheap power, we have to come up with mechanisms of increasing demand for power itself. When you produce less capacity, then the cost in terms of per capita or per unit goes high. We cannot compare our installed capacity of 3,000MW with that of South Africa, which has around 64 Gigawatts of installed power. In South Korea, it is around 120 Gigawatts. Therefore, what we are doing is to increase the demand side of power. When you increase the demand side, then the power you produce in bulk will have areas that it will be absorbed. Consequently, the cost of power per unit goes down. I am sure that we are already aligning towards this. I also want to add my voice on the issue of debt. Yesterday our Cabinet sat and they made proposals in regards to the debt benchmark. Instead of setting an aggregate figure in terms of the debt ceiling, they settled on a percentage of the GDP. Economies are moving targets. Our GDP and production keeps on rising. When you anchor debt in terms of an aggregate figure, then you are not giving credence to the fact that the economy is a moving target. Therefore, for fiscal prudence, most of the advanced economies put a benchmark that also moves in tandem with the movement of the economy. Instead of an aggregate figure, having a debt to GDP ratio is more preferable because economic growth keeps changing. Thus the Cabinet never approved anything about increasing the debt ceiling. It actually decided to reduce it. We have already demonstrated that we have currently reduced our deficit. We have further demonstrated through this Supplementary Budget that we have reduced our fiscal deficit to 5.7 per cent as opposed to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) recommendation of 6.2 and 5.8 per cent. As a responsible Government, we have reduced that to 5.7 per cent of our GDP through this Appropriation Bill. With those many remarks, I beg to reply."
}