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{
    "id": 1222169,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1222169/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 237,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Westlands, ODM",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Tim Wanyonyi",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": " Thank you, Hon. Temporary Speaker, for giving me this chance. I remember the last time the Cabinet Secretary for National Treasury came to our Committee on Delegated Legislation – which you also are a member – it was to convince us on the debt ceiling and why the Government needed to borrow. He said that they wanted to increase the ceiling because they wanted to retire the domestic loan and borrow from the international market since the domestic loan was expensive. He also said that once they do that, they will not need more borrowing because they will have obtained a cheap loan that will solve the problems they are having. What we know is that governments after governments do not have financial discipline; they keep on changing goalposts. Today, they will say this and tomorrow they will say that. Hon. Deputy Whip of the Majority Party, it is not about maandamano . When people agitate, it is about the failings of a government. That is why people go to the streets. If the Government fulfils what they told Kenyans, they will have no business going to the streets. When Mwai Kibaki was the President, he never used to speak loudly and comment on every issue. However, he was performing and the economy started improving. He simply did not compromise on some issues. The other issue is that the Government should stop involving itself in business. The work of Government is not business but to help Kenyans create wealth, create opportunities for Kenyans to invest and investors from outside to bring money to our economy. We have so many struggling parastatals and the Government keeps pouring money there. It is high time we stopped bailing out these struggling parastatals that have been mismanaged over the years. We can either sell them off or write them off completely so that the Government does not keep pouring money there. They are like a bottomless pit. You put money in and you never know where it is going. For us to start making this economy work, the National Treasury must have fresh ideas. For a long time, we have had people in Treasury who do not have an idea on how to grow the economy. Their business there is just to look. We make the budget but since they have no idea on where they are going to get the money from, they start burdening Kenyans with debts. Some of these debts are inflated. For example, the Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) – it was mooted during Kibaki’s time – would have cost us only Ksh32 billion to build from Mombasa to Malaba in Kibaki’s tenure. The same SGR, a few years after Kibaki’s presidency, cost Kenyans over Ksh400 billion to build from Mombasa to Nairobi. If you look at that difference, it is abnormal. Until we have financial discipline, we will continue to borrow. When the Kenya Kwanza Government came into power, they said they will borrow no more. However, since they came to power they are borrowing left, right and center. President Ruto should not only look outside but even within the opposition to find brains that can help him grow the economy apart from the sycophants sitting in his Government and have no ideas. The current Cabinet Secretary, National Treasury and Economic Planning failed while he was the Governor of the Central Bank of Kenya. I do not know what other ideas he has now that he is sitting at the Treasury driving our economy. I am sure the President can do better than that. I want to end there by saying that I wish this will be the last time that the Government will come to tell us that they are doing things above board. There is nothing that is above board. They want money. We are going to give them money but we want them to show us how they 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."
}