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{
    "id": 1261830,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1261830/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 183,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Emuhaya, ANC",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Omboko Milemba",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "is currently only Ksh400 billion, thus becoming very difficult for us to fully finance the Budget of Financial Year 2023/2024 without doing something about our debt ceiling. It is good practice as advised by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) that every country must borrow as per its capacity. That is why this Bill proposes that we move from the figure of Ksh10 trillion and increase it to Ksh11 trillion or Ksh12 trillion, given the history that this figure was increased beginning the Year, 2013 from Ksh1.1 trillion to the current figure of Ksh10 trillion. For a long time, many Kenyans imagined that Kenya has a lot of money. Given the rampant corruption that was going on within the country, members of the public were made to understand that there is too much money in this country that cannot get finished even if there is corruption. However, the truth is that we have been depending on borrowing. Every time we reached the public debt ceiling, we went back to Parliament and got more loans. That is how we sustained ourselves all these years. Remarkably, if you look at the figures as they were between 2013 and 2022, that is the position. Within that time, we tripled our foreign debt from about Ksh2 trillion to over Ksh10 trillion today. Therefore, there is need to manage our debts depending on our carrying capacity. Given that we are going the IMF and the World Bank way - the so-called Bretton Woods institutions - it is important that we regulate our borrowing depending on our carrying capacity. That is why a threshold of 55 per cent debt anchor is being proposed. In reality, that would make us reduce on our borrowing. Currently, what is the per centum of our debt vis-a-vis our GDP? It is much higher, as it has been stated by the Mover and the Seconder. We were lucky to have two strong economists – the Mover and the Seconder moving debate on this particular Bill. Our public debt now stands at over 60 per cent of GDP. It is about 62.5 per cent but we now want it to go down to 55 per cent. The whole agenda of this Bill is to bring down our public debt and manage it so that we move from where we are to a lower figure. I think it is good but we have to put several measures in place to make sure that we do not allow our powers to be ceded to the Cabinet Secretary. As proposed by both the Mover and the Seconder, Parliament should not allow its power of controlling the foreign debt to go to the Cabinet Secretary. Both the Mover and the Seconder did not indicate the fact that within this Bill, there was an attempt to try and lower the threshold of managing debt to a level of a regulation and not an Act. That would have been very dangerous. In the Committee of the whole House, we should correct that through both the Committee and the House. Matters relating to foreign debt and borrowing must be exclusively in the hands of Parliament and not downgraded to a regulation where the Cabinet Secretary can borrow beyond the threshold and still only come to Parliament to explain. If we did that, Parliament would have completely abdicated its duty of managing both debt and the Budget of this country. I know of very few countries that have gone the debt anchor way. We need to be brave enough to confront it in that manner because it will ensure we manage our debt. Finally, the high appetite for borrowing in this country needs to be managed and that is why yesterday we were dealing with tax laws and ways of raising funds, which will go a long way to try and manage this. But above all, it is important to create a sinking fund. If we had a sinking fund when we took the Euro Bond in 2014, we would have deposited enough money in it to manage and also help in paying the Euro Bond. I fully support that we need to go for concessional loans and long-term tenure bonds that can be used to pay the short-term debts that we have, which are very expensive and are leading this country into great trouble. Hon. Speaker, I support this Bill and urge the House to support it because we have to cut our cloth according to our size. This will be a little bit difficult but that is the way we need to go so as to manage the country and in so doing, also have to improve on productivity. One 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."
}