Entry Instance

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

{
    "id": 1393837,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1393837/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 267,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Orwoba",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "The idea of having a medium-term debt management strategy is not that we stop borrowing completely. It is so that we can ensure that we have - we find a way to ensure that our public debt remains sustainable. In that essence, then I was looking at the report and trying to see what we were doing differently. I welcome the proposal of ensuring that some of the undisbursed loans should be cancelled so that we can save on the spending or save on the commitment fees of these undisbursed loans. When you look at that Report as well, it highlights that we are trying to get to a point as a country where we are producers, that we have more outputs. The opposite of what has been happening is that we have been borrowing to subsidise output. We have been borrowing to finance big elephant infrastructural projects that have very little impact on our day-to-day economic affairs, and what we are trying to say now is that we will borrow, but we will prioritise what we are spending our debt on. In essence, then it is an issue of how we get ourselves out of that hole. First, we must reduce the borrowing, but that has to be a reflection on what our priority areas are. What do we need money for? As I have heard our fellow Senators speaking on infrastructural projects, roads and things like that, we still have to be aware of the fact that we are in serious debt. We have to find a way to, first of all, get to a point where we can breathe as a country. As I was listening to Sen. Ledama Olekina, speaking of all these projects that should not happen and all these ideas of how we are spending our money, I was wondering whether, with that spirit of his submissions, he would support the privatization of some of the state agencies that are performing very poorly. You look at state agencies, for instance, Post Bank. Post bank is an asset that is accumulating a lot of expenditure that is unnecessary. It is not generating any revenue as it is supposed to do. Sometimes I wonder and I ask myself, if we will run State agencies as if they do not require to break even or become profitable; then it is a serious conversation that we should have. We need to get to a place where we should let go of some of these State agencies. This is in realization that they are not being run properly and that a culture of corruption has been inculcated in those agencies. That the State agencies are not adding value to our economy in terms of the revenue that they are supposed to bring in. I have heard Sen. Cherarkey speak of Kenya Airways. It is the same issue we are having with the Kenyatta International Convention Centre (KICC). The conversation of privatization of some of these state agencies is very imperative. It also occurs to me that as we highlight those that are known such as Post Bank, KICC, Kenya Airways and all others, which have refused to change and turn their ways to become profitable entities, I would like to bring to the attention of this House to a state agency known as Unclaimed Financial Assets Authority (UFAA). If the personalities who run this agency understood how hard our President is working to ensure our budgets are making sense and to break even in order to run this country with minimum borrowing, then they would account for Kshs10 billion where we have discrepancies. The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Director, Hansard and AudioServices, Senate."
}