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{
    "id": 1352747,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1352747/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 2507,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Emuhaya, ANC",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Omboko Milemba",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "The statistics we have are very limited. I am happy that this House, for the first time in many years, is able to speak about public debt in terms of how much we have borrowed, how much we are borrowing and where we are taking the money to. The 12th Parliament did not have the opportunity to do this.People would speak about the budget and concentrate on expenditure rather than where we are getting the money from, especially on the debt. This Report covers only 12 months, beginning 1st May 2022 to 30th April 2023. It is so specific because it deals with foreign debt. It has not included internal borrowing, which is made up of Treasury Bills and Treasury Bonds which, as I heard someone indicate, are also very high. I see great space for this Parliament. If we continue with this discourse, we have a chance of enacting laws that will force the Executive to bring reports to Parliament on loans that they sign with international organisations, whether it is the World Bank, the IMF, the London Club or Paris Club or whatever other bilateral country. The case studies are very rich. That will not be happening in Kenya alone. Countries like Ghana have already gone that direction. Any borrowing by the Government is actually approved Parliament. When you talk to people at our National Treasury, they will tell you that that will take too long, it is complex and it will waste time but that is not the case. Zimbabwe is another good example where Parliament is responsible for resolving the issue of public debts. I am proud of this Committee because they tell you that externally we have borrowed over 19 loans and the disbursement is very little. I do not want to repeat what people said about this. The only danger in this has been what we call ‘commitment fees’, which many speakers spoke about. We have not received the money yet we are paying some commitment fees. The last time I heard about it, it was Ksh1.5 billion. You can imagine that. You are not using the money you committed yourself to take because you have not yet taken it but you have to pay Ksh1.5 billion. I am aware that in the last financial year we paid Ksh499 million in form of commitment fees alone. That is quite a substantial amount of money. We must take loans when we are ready, and not just rush and take loans because the money is available for lending."
}