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{
    "id": 1275886,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1275886/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 410,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Oketch Gicheru",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "Thank you, Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, for giving me the opportunity to share some thoughts on the Bill. As I had told the substantive Speaker, I am grateful to be back in the House in order to contribute to the business. I will not forget to thank the people of Migori for the support they have given me in the last three and a half months that I have been unwell. They sent me to this House, but they have been courteous when I was in my lowest moment. I thank them too because during that time, I was able to engage appropriately with the Committee on Finance and Budget that their vote enabled me to be part of. In that regard, I also thank the Chairman of that Committee, Sen. Ali Roba, “Captain” who has for the first time, enabled us to engage soberly with the National Treasury on the debt burden of our country. Mr. Temporary Speaker, most of my thoughts and alignments in support to this Bill were echoed in the Report of the Bill that has been tabled here. However, there are some aspects of this Bill that I want to emphasize on. I will start with where my senior, Sen. Mungatana, started with on deficit. I understand the concern that he has on the issue of deficit. However, I want to be liberal on this issue because the Government is not a trading entity. To the extent that we are always going to have a deficit if you are going to be in Government, what then constitutes a deficit? If your deficit is more on development, then it is a worthy deficit. However, if it is an issue of more consumption and what we are seeing as paying bills in this country, where over 62 per cent of our Government’s spending goes to paying recurrent expenditure, then that becomes a problem. The second bit I want to emphasize on because it might water down this Bill, is how to finance that deficit. If you borrow from outside the country, it would make it easier than if you borrowed within the country, which would then lead to crowding out. If I were to reframe the essence of this Bill, it would be a debt-relief Bill. Having a debt is okay, but when you have a debt that you cannot manage, then you need to have a relief mechanism. The Bill, in its essence, is about making us realise that as a country we need to manage the debt. It is not that we have a problem with having the debt. Mr. Temporary Speaker Sir, for the first time, we went through all the options that we have to be able to manage our debt. I honestly appreciate it. In Kiswahili, they say"
}