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{
    "id": 1266745,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1266745/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 345,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Starehe, JP",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Amos Maina",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13283,
        "legal_name": "Charles Kanyi Njagua",
        "slug": "charles-kanyi-njagua"
    },
    "content": " Thank you, Hon. Temporary Speaker for giving me an opportunity to speak on the Consolidated Fund Service Expenditures Report, which I support. As a country, it is high time we discussed the issue of public debt and the borrowing done by the Government. It seems lazy to think that an economy can only be driven through two ways - either borrowing or taxing the people. I think the Government is being too lazy in its thinking because we cannot have two models as choices to drive our economy. An economy can be driven through other models like production, consumption, investment and savings. It is high time the Government looked for other creative ways to improve our economy, and not exclusively through taxation and borrowing. The Cabinet Secretary for Investment, Trade and Industry, Hon. Moses Kuria, is on record saying that 80 per cent of our farm produce is lost because it is always harvested when it over-ripe hence not fit for export. We have not exhausted all the export markets for our local produce. Taxation as the only way to raise revenue is a very quick way to kill our economy. We are saying most of the budget is for servicing loans and paying debts yet we know that borrowing is a very bad habit that can never stop. It is high time we capped out public debt at a certain level and then adopt other ways of improving the economy. For example, in committees, when we talk to several Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) as well as Semi-Autonomous Government Agencies (SAGAs), which we oversee, we tend to notice that re-current expenditure is always three times the capital expenditure. You find an MDA having a recurrent budget of Ksh1 billion and a capital budget of about Ksh20 million or Ksh50 million and you are left wondering. We spend so much money yet the development component is so small. Many MDAs are doing this. We have a problem with how things are done and where the finances go in as much as we are borrowing. 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."
}