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{
    "id": 1358162,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1358162/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 362,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Saku, UDA",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Ali Raso",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": " Thank you very much, Hon. Temporary Speaker. I wish to add my voice to this debate on the President's address to the nation. I would consider it in terms of constitutionalism, democratic accountability and governance. We have lived in this country long enough to understand what is really going on. This is the first President who is telling Kenyans that this is what I am doing and this is a clear glass. Look at me and judge me with what I am doing. It is a rare thing. We have also seen the last Government which was operating in a lot of opaqueness. Many of us were in this House and did not know that we were borrowing money from individuals. We were subsidising individuals and, in the end, they were just a few cartels who were milking Kenya dry. Today, we are telling each other that this economy is not doing well. This President is not doing well. No country in the world can be turned around in a span of one year, but this President has given us some of the very important things he has done. It is the former American President Bill Clinton who said that the economy is stupid. This President said bottom-up economic agenda where he is saying, we reduce the external debt and internal borrowing so that we do not crowd out the private sector and individuals who wish to bank into the economy. One of the problems in this country has been wasteful borrowing where we are borrowing from the Chinese, the multilateral donors, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank. In the end, Kenyans are told to pay through their nose. Our colleagues from the other side are really crying that the economy is not doing well and our people are badmouthing the Kenya Kwanza Government. From what the President told us a few days ago, he is saying that we trust and walk with him because he wants to fix the economy. In Kenya, if we do not fix the economy, all the other sectors will be phantom and hot air. On the issue of subsidies, we have been told - and somebody on the Floor of this House attempted to elaborate - that we should not be digging when we are in a hole. We should never throw away good money after bad money. The idea of subsidies forces us to borrow much more and yet, at the end of the day, it is our debt as a nation that continues to rise. The other important thing that the President talked about is food security. Unless we are going to be food self-sufficient in this country, buying food from outside and spending so much of our foreign reserves must stop somewhere. The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor."
}