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{
    "id": 1222164,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1222164/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 232,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Kilifi North, UDA",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Owen Baya",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "Another very important question is why the Government is borrowing its own money at high interest rate. That is because that money is littered all over and yet, the Government says it does not have money. One Ministry will not have money, but another one has a lot of money. Why do you have to borrow to finance a project and yet, the State Department for Roads has Ksh500 billion in the account that it is not using? Why would the State Department of Water and Sanitation be forced to borrow Ksh100 million for a project and yet, another department here has that money? It is even interesting that, that money is lying in our commercial banks and yet, the Government goes to borrow the same money that belongs to it. We pay more interest and commercial banks benefit out of it. If we had one Treasury account, we would have used that money. I want to commend that policy resolution that this Government requires to have one Treasury account as provided for by the PFM Act. This must be implemented now to save Kenyans on this issue of debt. When it comes to debt, we need to find a way to balance trans-generational debt. If you have a good medium-term plan on debt management, then you will be able to say, “my father paid this amount, I will pay this, my children will pay this and my grandchildren will pay this.” We cannot take all the debt and give it to only one generation that comes later to pay it. We need to look into that. This debt management strategy will help our country to look at the trans- generational debts. This is necessary so that we are able to secure the future of our children and grandchildren. The practice that we are trying to start in this Parliament must be entrenched into law properly so that we do not burden our grandchildren with debts. A good medium-term debt strategy will ensure that trans-generational debt is properly managed and this country will be helped. Hon. Temporary Speaker, I would like to comment on deviations from approved ceilings that the Committee talked about. During the 12th Parliament, we almost fought when we were discussing on how high or low we were to take the debt. I remember the Budget Policy Statement and Budget reflected different debts and the question was which one was to come first. I remember that argument here! It was fireworks here when it was time to decide on increasing the ceiling. In my view, there is a problem when Parliament passes debt management strategy without consensus. This policy that we are trying to anchor, that we have a Committee that does this work is going to help do away with this issue of deviations. It should not be at the whim of the President or the people at the National Treasury, but this Parliament. Parliament needs to tell the Executive that they cannot borrow and that they should look at what they have and run the country. We need to look into that. That is an objective way to ensure that we run a good fiscal management policy and Treasury without having to arm-twist Members here and there for us to borrow. Fundamentally, this Constitution is anchored on public participation. The debt ceilings and whatever we do never go to the people, but I like that this is what we are introducing. If you must decide to borrow, then you must go to the people and ask them: “Should we borrow or not?” We must anchor public participation in our debt management. That is the only way to safeguard constitutionalism and its principle. We need to do that. Going forward, we need to look at public participation when we are managing debts and when the Government wants to borrow. Hon. Temporary Speaker, as I finish making my contribution, I want to say this to my friends in the Minority: This is how to put the Government to account. It is in this Parliament that we need to bring these ideas and check Government using policy papers, just like what the Chairman of the Public Debt and Privatization Committee has done. It is good he comes from the Minority side. This is where democracy is properly anchored, not in demonstrations. Why do we go to make noise out there in the markets and yet, it is in this House where we can bring ideas, refine them and have better governance? This is because Members have been given the mandate by the people to sit in this House, argue out issues and bring out good policies and 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."
}