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{
    "id": 1393838,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1393838/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 268,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Orwoba",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "Just to bring it to perspective. After I highlighted the issue of monthly period poverty and how the Government needs to be part of the interventions, the national budget for provision of sanitary towels to all public schools in the country was roughly Kshs260 million. In relevance to what I am trying to show. Unclaimed Financial Assets Authority (UFAA) has discrepancies of up to Kshs10 billion per year. I had asked the budget for sanitary towels to be pushed to Kshs1 billion. When the President heard my plea of increasing the budget, he was kind enough to make it work to a point that even with the debt that he is managing, we got Kshs940 million. We have a State agency operating in the sums of billions that cannot account for this money which is potentially being looted. The impact of Kshs1 billion providing sanitary towels to schools would be immense. Sometimes I look at all this money being spent and the same agency cannot account for Kshs500 million that they claim they have spent for auditing services. The sad thing about this is that this is money that has been left by those who have passed on. It is literally dancing on the graves of dead people. Most of the unclaimed financial assets come from the people who have passed on and they never informed their next of kin. We should be prudent in terms of austerity measures, even here in the Senate. we should ensure that these state agencies one of them being UFAA are audited to the point where we are looking at the extra resources that this country has and how we can either diversify or use them to help us in running the economy of this country. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, the previous regimes were focusing on putting money on huge infrastructural project on output such as subsidizing unga . There was a time we were told that unga would be subsidized to a certain price. Billions of Kenya shillings were spent to hoodwink Kenyans, because we were close to an election, that money was going to be used from the government coffers to ensure the price of unga was subsidized. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, to date, that subsidy that was put in has never reflected in the price of unga . As a matter of fact, it was only until the Kenya Kwanza Government subsidized the input in terms of fertilizer that we saw the cost of unga coming down from the highest of Kshs225 to Kshs154. That was because we channeled the resources in the right direction and subsidized the input as opposed to the output. I want to urge Senators from the Opposition to understand that we cannot keep doing the same things and expecting different results. While the previous regime wanted to subsidize output and spend the money on huge infrastructural projects that did not immediately impact the economy, this Kenya Kwanza regime is saying that we must first get out of the hole we are in. We have to practice the austerity measures. I like the fact that Sen. Olekina and Sen. Sifuna always highlight how austerity measures should be put up in State House. However, since they are part of the Senate leadership, I would like to ask them: How are they practicing austerity measures in the Senate? For the bigger interest of this country, since they are trying to save and ensure 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."
}