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{
    "id": 1275757,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1275757/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 281,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Cheruiyot",
    "speaker_title": "The Senate Majority Leader",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13165,
        "legal_name": "Aaron Kipkirui Cheruiyot",
        "slug": "aaron-cheruiyot"
    },
    "content": "without the CRA to come and make their presentations. On many occasions, they never fail us. Therefore, I follow through with the proposals that have been made. I forgot some of my notes, but I just want to go through this, clause by clause, in quick succession because this is a fairly straightforward Bill, about two or three pages only. This Bill seeks to amend the following sections of the PFM Act No.18 of 2012, to operationalize the public debt and borrowing policy with regards to the framework for monitoring the level of public debt and align it with provisions of Article 214(2) of the Constitution of Kenya, 2010, which defines public debt to mean all financial obligations attendant to the loans raised or guaranteed securities or guaranteed by the national Government. This is an important conversation. I wish Sen. Okiya Omtatah was here. Out there, he has been quite vocal about this conversation of the need for us to rethink, and perhaps have a better conversation on how we keep our debt stockpile and how we report. What framework we can create as the legislative body so that at any given time, we, as a country, know the value of the debt that Kenya owes to any lenders; be they domestic or foreign. We are greatly in need of this particular policy; monitoring public debt borrowing policy framework because I know that two years ago before this House as a Member of the Committee on Finance and Budget, the then Cabinet Secretary for National Treasury and Economic Planning appeared before us one afternoon. I do not remember the exact legislation that we were considering, but when we insisted that he present us with an accurate reporting mechanism of what is it that Kenya owes its lenders, we were presented with an Excel spreadsheet and told that is the only register that can be maintained. That points out to the challenge that we continue to face. To be sincere, this legislation on its own is not enough. It is not sustainable to cure that malady in terms of reporting. If today Kenyans wanted to visit a specific website or Government office where they will get an accurate representation of the amounts of money that we owe our lenders, I am afraid that you will struggle around Harambee Avenue until you go back home without an accurate figure of what the exact amount is. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, this Act is beginning to direct us towards the preparation of a framework to guide that particular process. However, I still feel that we, as Parliament, that is both us and the ‘lower’ House, need to move further than just creating the framework. We must provide the reporting mechanism for every lending that the country incurs to be reported. The justification for the same should be provided in an open way. I have watched people present before television screens, including Senators, sometimes and I know that part of the debts that we are paying cannot be accounted for. I know there is a possibility that some of it never even found its way to this House. That is a serious indictment of us as a House of Parliament. I hope that by creating this framework when we come to the reporting regulations because that is what is being proposed in this particular Bill, the reporting mechanism, we will make it possible for both the National Assembly and the Senate to do a thorough"
}