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{
    "id": 1222175,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1222175/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 243,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Kathiani, WDM",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Robert Mbui",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": " Thank you, Hon. Temporary Speaker, for this opportunity. First, the newly formed Public Debt and Privatisation Committee has done an excellent job. I am happy to have been part of the last Parliament where we made the decision that the issue of public debt needs to have its own standalone committee so that matters of public debt can be properly sorted out. The National Treasury has been a very big let-down in many ways. One of the things that they have said is that the debt strategy is based on the assumption that over the medium term, the economy will recover with stable macroeconomic variables, revenue collections will improve and fiscal balance will decline. I ask myself whether those National Treasury mandarins are the same ones who, just before we went on the last recess, came and told us that as a promise to the nation, they would release Ksh2 billion for the National Government Constituencies Development Fund (NG-CDF). They could not even project that. They have defaulted on that agreement several times. I ask myself whether we are really in safe hands when it comes to people managing our money. Strategy is just a matter of figuring out where you are coming from, where you are and projecting where you are going. Where have we come from? I was in this House when the debt ceiling was increased on three or four occasions. I remember seconding the Motion to increase the debt ceiling to Ksh9 trillion. I remember the figures that the debt ceiling was being raised to. The National Treasury told us that the reason they wanted to increase the debt ceiling was because at that point, they had borrowed close to the ceiling that was already in place. The proposal was that they were not increasing the debt ceiling so that they could borrow more. They were doing so, so that they could settle very expensive domestic loans and get cheaper loans externally. Unfortunately, after we increased the debt ceiling to Ksh9 trillion, they borrowed up to Ksh9 trillion and came back to the House to increase it to Ksh10 trillion, where we are now. I know that in a short while, they might even attempt to come back to change it. 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."
}