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{
    "id": 1250571,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1250571/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 1669,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Kiharu, UDA",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Ndindi Nyoro",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "We anticipate to lower that in the next financial year to Ksh3.6 per cent fiscal deficit as a share of our GDP. We must continue relying on internal resources. There is a reason why we are doing that. We have not seen a country, especially an emerging economy, that has grown on the basis of borrowing. A big economy like Japan has borrowed to a tune of 250 per cent as a share of its GDP in terms of its debt portfolio. It has not realised any real growth since 1994! Indeed, that is one reason we must not continue overborrowing as a country and as an economy. It is the same reason, in terms of policy; we do not want our borrowing to exceed 55 per cent of our entire debt portfolio in relation to our GDP. All these factors, if compounded, have an effect on our Budget. How? I said it before that we are spending Ksh986 billion from the Consolidated Fund Services (CFSs). The Consolidated Fund Services basically is the money that goes into repayment of debts. We are spending more money to pay our debts than what we are spending to pay the entire civil service. The interest rate of our debts alone is more than the money we are spending for development as a country. That cannot be business as usual, and that is why we are climbing down in terms of borrowing. Hon. Deputy Speaker, I just wish to touch on a few highlights then I sit down. I wish Members could capture what I am going to say because that is where resources are. Number one, our biggest spending ticket this financial year under consideration is education. We have allocated Ksh630 billion to our education sector. As the Budget and Appropriations Committee and this House, we should know that the people of Kenya or the human capital is the highest priced of all factors of production we have as a country. That is why we are putting a third of our Budget into refining and adding value to our labour. We are putting Ksh26 billion in the capitation of our Junior Secondary Schools (JSS). In other words, we are almost doubling our JSS capitation because we want to take care of next year's new class of January."
}