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"id": 12943,
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"speaker_name": "Mr. Keynan",
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"legal_name": "Adan Wehliye Keynan",
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"content": "Hon. Abdul Bahari, M.P. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, taking into account what has been happening in this country over the last one year, and more so, what happened yesterday where the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) raised its base lending rate from 11 per cent to 16.5 per cent, which I am sure in the next few days, will make commercial banks adjust their base lending rates to a minimum of almost 27 or 30 per cent, it is important that the issue is considered.. This is reminiscent of what happened in 1991 and 1992 when suddenly as a result of the advent of multipartyism a number of other issues came up. Then, a dollar was going for about Kshs16, but within a year a dollar was actually going for over Kshs100. It is because of this that many Kenyans have been rendered homeless. They lost their mortgages to commercial banks. Many Kenyans have been reduced to paupers, not because they are not hard working, but simply because they lost all their savings through State-induced inflation. We must own up that we have had cartels. For a country to prosper economically, it must not be an importing nation. Kenya is a very productive country agriculturally. However, because of poor economic and agricultural policies, this country has been reduced to an importing nation instead of an exporting one. This has drastically reduced the foreign exchange reserve. We have seen cartels. We have been hearing of – I am glad that a number of media houses have been making reference to this – the Kidero effects, that is, the sugar crisis. A kilo of sugar today goes for Kshs250 while the ideal price is supposed to be less than Kshs100. We have had energy crisis in this country. Of late, it has been experiencing fuel shortages. We have had the maize crisis and recently the forex crisis. We are very soon likely to have an export/import crisis. All these cartels are signs of failed institutions and State. I have gone to many countries, but this is the only country where we have a free- for-all economy and where there is no regression. Anybody can buy anything. Anybody can bring anything and transfer any amount of money. This is unacceptable because it has led to serious capital flight. This has increased the domestic debt to the extent that every Kenyan today is indebted. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, we should not pride that we finance our budget as a country through tax collection. We need to ask ourselves: If ten years ago the domestic debt was less than Kshs100 billion and today it is close to a trillion, then certainly--- This is not something that we can easily externalize. This is something that will be with us until we get a solution which is to rein in on some of these individuals or organizations that have created panic buying as a result of speculation. They have created artificial crises, so that they can reap from it. Politicians will come and go, so will political events. However, we must at all times be prepared to protect the interest of the millions of innocent Kenyans. If these artificial shortages we are seeing have anything to do with the next general elections, God forbid, then we are headed the wrong direction. This is reminiscent of what happened in 1992 when Kenya suddenly lost everything and, today, we have not recovered. This is one thing that we need to guard against. Of late, we have seen illegal buying and hoarding and the Governor of Central of Bank of Kenya (CBK) has been lamenting that there is money buying and hoarding by big commercial banks. This is one thing that we need to address. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, the blind adoption of IMF and World Bank policies in the 1990s in the name of structural adjustment programmes have also contributed to this problem. Those programmes were not Kenyan-based or Kenyan- oriented. They were foreign ideas and had failed to work in Kenya and other parts of the world. In the recent Asian crisis, among the few countries that survived the Asian economic crunch, was Malaysia. What the then leader of that country, Dr. Mahathir Mohamad did against the advice of IMF and World Bank was to strictly apply rules that were tailor-made for the people of Malaysia. If what has been happening over the last month is true, a committee was constituted by the Right hon. Prime Minister but it made a report that did not work. The Central Bank Monetary Policy Committee met and wrote a report which did not work. Treasury intervened and it did not work also. That is why it is imperative that the National Assembly of the Republic of Kenya must take centre stage, take charge and deal with the individuals or organizations who are hell bent on impoverishing Kenyans. It is because of that, that I consider this Motion timely and relevant. Therefore, as a Parliament, we must address the causes."
}