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{
    "id": 1275912,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1275912/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 436,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Omogeni",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13219,
        "legal_name": "Erick Okong'o Mogeni",
        "slug": "erick-okongo-mogeni"
    },
    "content": "Going back to the Bill, we have created a shift to base our borrowing on GDP growth. I still maintain that we are moving fast. We are copying the West and picking best practices from them. Let us not pick abstract theories from the West and impose them on ourselves before we do careful examination. If you read about international debt, USA has the largest debt portfolio in the world. Nonetheless, look at their economy. The economy of California alone is more than that of the African Continent. When you base their borrowing on GDP, you cannot go wrong. Look at a country like Kenya. If we are not careful, especially if we get a Government that has a high appetite for borrowing, I have no doubt that some devolved functions such as healthcare and water would suffer because it will be hard to give adequate resources to the counties. I am not laying any blame to the previous Government. However, imagine if we did not have the kind of debt we had, we would not have had quarrels on the idea of how much money we should give to counties. If our debt portfolio was down, counties would have got more than Kshs407 billion. We are now fighting because a huge chunk of the revenue we collect as a country goes to servicing debt. That is the reality. If the debt portfolio was properly managed by the previous regimes, we would be having more than enough money to send to our counties. By passing this legislation, we will give a blank cheque to the Government of the day on borrowing."
}