Entry Instance

HTTP 200 OK
Allow: GET, PUT, PATCH, DELETE, HEAD, OPTIONS
Content-Type: application/json
Vary: Accept

{
    "id": 1283478,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1283478/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 193,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Molo UDA",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Kuria Kimani",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "The Kenya Shilling has taken a great dive over the US Dollar in the last few months and all the efforts to bring down that exchange rate have borne very little fruit. We asked the nominee what new strategies he thinks should be put in place to tame the depreciation of the Kenya Shilling against the dollar. It was interesting to note that there is an existing East African Monetary Treaty that sets out the establishment of a common currency in the East African Community (EAC). However, very little progress has been made in this frontier. It begs the question: If a trader in Namanga is buying products or services from Tanzania, why do they need to worry about the exchange rate of the Kenya Shilling to the dollar? If a trader in Busia wants to buy fuel in Uganda, why do they need to worry about the exchange rate? We have become slaves of the dollar. It is high time the central banks and the political leadership of East Africa put to rest the matter of someone sitting in a far-off country determining the interest rates and the value of our shilling. This will be done through the establishment of the EAC currency and, hopefully, introducing an Afro currency which would be acceptable across Africa. We have seen this happen in the European Union (EU). Despite Brexit, you can go to very many countries in the EU and you only need Euros. We are looking forward to the appointment of this candidate. We wish him all the best. I ask this House to consider this great Kenyan professional with 28 years of experience in legal practice. He has demonstrated good knowledge in matters finance, money and corporate governance in all the institutions he has worked for, including his own legal firm. I hope we will approve him as the next Chairperson of CBK. Hopefully, we will have a Central Bank- backed digital currency and move away from the over-reliance on the US Dollar by having, for starters, an EAC currency and introducing an Afro-currency that will be used as the medium of exchange across the African continent. With that, I beg to move and ask the Vice-Chairman to second."
}