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{
    "id": 1421050,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1421050/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 240,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Maanzo",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13589,
        "legal_name": "Maanzo Daniel Kitonga",
        "slug": "maanzo-daniel-kitonga"
    },
    "content": "investigation. Even if they are taken to court, they are sure they will have their way and get away with it. That is where the challenge is. We need to slay the dragon of corruption in Kenya if we are to get anywhere with all the debts we have. When it comes to production, Kenya is an agricultural country. I saw a report on fake fertilizer. They said that the fertilizer being sold to farmers is filled with stones. That means farmers have lost money because of buying fake fertilizer. That means the produce will be poor, yet this is a country that is supposed to produce food. What is the aftermath? We will end up borrowing money to buy food to feed our people and the circle continues due to corruption. If you compare the cost of some of our mega projects here with those ones in Rwanda or Ethiopia, you will find that ours are exaggerated. Even if it is road construction, it amounts to official corruption. There is collusion from the contractor to the engineers. For a road that should be done using less money, like in countries such as Australia and other parts of the world, we pay 10 times for ours. If we begin dealing with corruption, we will save a lot. People collude when we have pending bills and delayed projects like the Thwake Dam. When you delay a project, it becomes more expensive. You end up paying double than what the project would have cost. Kenya loses and we have a huge debt that will take a lifetime to pay. There are many examples of countries losing because of corruption. Any country that has succeeded has fought corruption completely. That includes Singapore to all the Asian tigers such as China. They even have death sentence for corrupt people. There is total recovery of all stolen property. In our case, that is not the way. Most people are billionaires because they have stolen from the public. Until we strengthen the fight against corruption, it will be difficult to pay these debts, and the country will continue to be broken. Even if people were taxed 100 per cent and everything, we worked for went into taxes, we will still not pay our debts, so long as there is corruption. We will always have problems and face issues. Corruption results in political instability, which chases away our tourists. The other way we earn money is through tourism. Corruption also leads to increased pending bills in the counties. When we delay monies to the counties, we delay payments to suppliers, who go to court to get huge court awards with interest rates up to when they will be executed. There is the Government Proceedings Act, but sometimes, you cannot auction the Government. By the time these people are paid, money will have been lost due to mismanagement. There are a lot of pending bills in the counties. There are people who have worked for the counties and have done projects that you can see cost them money. Even if you value and assess them, you will find they are owed money. However, their payments are delayed. They go to court and are frustrated. They get court judgments, but no one is paid. Most of them end up dying, leaving their children poor and their companies collapsing, which does not help the country. It reduces payment of taxes and cycle continues. As a country, we must resolve to fight corruption. Morals and good values should be taught to young children in schools and higher learning institutions, so that we can change the configuration of most Kenyans, who believe that to become wealthy, you 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."
}