Entry Instance

HTTP 200 OK
Allow: GET, PUT, PATCH, DELETE, HEAD, OPTIONS
Content-Type: application/json
Vary: Accept

{
    "id": 1231401,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1231401/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 255,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Cheruiyot",
    "speaker_title": "The Senate Majority Leader",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13165,
        "legal_name": "Aaron Kipkirui Cheruiyot",
        "slug": "aaron-cheruiyot"
    },
    "content": "High levels of debt financing as well as elevated debt risk continues to be a discussion that has populated media space and a conversation around our political space in the last few days. Due to the limited access to finance in the domestic and international financial markets, financing constraints continues to bite. As a result, the National Treasury did not disburse Kshs29.6 billion to county governments in the Financial Year 2021/2022. I hope when I was talking about that, the Senate Minority Leader and his Deputy, Sen. Wambua, were here to appreciate what I was saying earlier. I said that part of the challenges and problems we are facing today is a constellation of decisions that this House has taken over the years, many of which we are forced to pay the burden. Mr. Speaker, Sir, in the Financial Year 2021/2022, Kshs29.6 billion of what we passed as a House did not make it to the counties. We understand that that was a difficult year financially. The Government is also implementing a fiscal consolidation plan so as to lower the fiscal deficit. In the Supplementary Budget that was passed by the National Assembly, which is the “Lower House”, the first budget by this administration reduced our fiscal deficit from 6.2 to 5.7 per cent of our national budget. There is still a proposal in the Budget Policy Statement (BPS) that will be laid by the Cabinet Secretary (CS) in June. Under the BPS that we passed in this House, we have proposed to further push it downwards to 4.4 per cent. Mr. Speaker, Sir, it is because of a huge fiscal deficit, which I want colleague Senators to understand and perhaps, read and appreciate what is being said by the National Treasury on how we have been doing our budgeting, such that we find ourselves in this situation we are in. It basically means that we are living beyond our means as a country. If you were to reduce it to a conversation of an ordinary citizen, it is like a 23-year old young man who has just been employed and fresh from university earning Kshs50,000, but insists on living in Kileleshwa, where the rent is Kshs100,000. He also goes to his friend who sells vehicles and takes one on loan. At the end of the month, his monthly bills are close to Kshs300,000. The difference between that Kshs300,000 and what he makes annually is what we are referring to as fiscal deficit. We do budgets beyond the revenue we raise. There is no other source for resources other than going back to the markets to borrow. Doing that over the years is what has led us to the crunch we are currently facing. Mr. Speaker, Sir, the Government has to implement what is referred to as fiscal consolidation, so as to continue to tighten the belts and implement this consolidation. To reflect this fiscal tightening, the national Government recurrent ceiling growth has been restricted, declining from a growth rate of 10.3 per cent in the Financial Year 2017/2018 to 1.2 per cent in the Financial Year 2023/2024. That is the difference between how this present administration is managing our economy as compared to the previous administration. Mr. Speaker, Sir, I am aware that people are raising questions. I have heard colleagues complaining their salaries have delayed and this and that has been done. Where do you expect money to come from? We had to make a difficult decision of"
}