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{
    "id": 1250603,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1250603/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 1701,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Uriri, ODM",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Mark Nyamita",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": " Thank you, Hon. Temporary Speaker. I also rise to support this Motion. This Motion is the first one of this Government. I agree with the Chairperson of the Budget and Appropriations Committee that this Budget is being made during a very challenging time when the country’s debt status has been downgraded. We issued a local bond that has been undersubscribed. The banking sector is also facing a few challenges. There is also political tension, not to mention the Ukraine-Russia war that is also affecting all of us. Kenyans are looking at how this Budget will set the stage for the Government in terms of what we will expect over the next five years. If there are any corrective measures, such indicators must be picked within this Budget. However, whereas we congratulate the Committee and the various departmental committees for the work they put in, I have had occasion to peruse through the Report and I have not seen the inclusion of what we call citizens’ inputs. During the sector hearings, the public normally comes in and gives its wishes, which are supposed to be captured within the Budget. We have seen that the Committee undertook public participation in various counties across the country. You might want to know that the projects that we included in the Budget of the last financial year, which is ending this month, have not been implemented. It would be bad for us as a House to engage in public participation without necessarily taking into account one or two things. We hope that the items and feedback that this Committee picked up during public participation are going to be captured. The revenue projections as indicated in this Budget show an increase of about 17 per cent, which I find a bit unrealistic. This is because as you have seen, traditionally, our GDP grows by 10 per cent every year. When you predict an increase of 17 per cent, it may appear a bit unrealistic and that can only add to the deficit, which we then have to rationalise during the Supplementary Budget. I do not know what the Departmental Committee on Finance and National Planning will be presenting to us. I know that the revenue projections of Ksh2.5 trillion might be a bit unrealistic considering the background upon which this Budget is being done. Hon. Temporary Speaker, the disbursement of NG-CDF is way below 50 per cent. Whereas we have got commitments which we are yet to actualise from the National Treasury, they are yet to release NG-CDF money for this financial year which is coming to an end. We are realistic to note that they may not be able to release the whole amount. I urge my colleagues that if the full amount of NG-CDF for the Financial Year 2022/2023 is not released by the end of it, then the arrears must be captured within this particular Budget. In the absence of the arrears being captured in this particular Budget, it means that we will have to wait for a further Supplementary Budget whose date we do not know and we are likely to suffer. I hope that before we go to the Committee of Supply, the National Treasury would have come back to us with the exact amounts that they are releasing and the balance of which we may amend on the Floor of this House and include in this particular one. Going into a bit of the specifics, in the Ministry of ICT under the Government Advertising Agency (GAA), today the Government continues to spend a lot of money. They spend money advertising through an insert in the daily newspapers and they pay a lot of money sometimes between Ksh18 million to Ksh24 million every single week. There used to be the Audit Bureau of Circulation in the Postal Corporation, a unit that died. There is no value for that particular money because if you ask my GAA how many newspapers does Nation Media distribute every week, they cannot tell you. They will rely on what the media house will tell 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."
}