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{
    "id": 1459573,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1459573/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 195,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Kiharu, UDA",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Ndindi Nyoro",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "in practise what we are passing today is the main Budget. I say so because the main one was not implemented. What will get implemented is what is contained here. I can see that Members are already reading and consulting on the contents in this Bill. What are the contents? The Budget we are considering is one of roughly Ksh3.8 trillion. If you look at the revenue side, we have been able to downgrade our projections. Other than the Ksh2.9 billion we anticipated in the main Budget, we would now be raising slightly above Ksh2.6 trillion. The Appropriations-in-Aid in this Budget is just around Ksh440 billion, but as I said before, the deficit is over Ksh700 billion. What is on the expenditure side? I just want to highlight a few elements. On the national Government side, we have been able to take a hit of around Ksh121 billion. This is a downgrade in expenditure regarding the Executive, Parliament and Judiciary. To lead the way, Parliament voluntarily accepted a cut of Ksh3.7 billion. Members of this House have told Kenyans clearly that they are willing to travel less in regard to both domestic and foreign. We have, therefore, been able to rationalise budgets in the National Assembly and Parliament at large. Hon. Speaker, we have also been able to cut some resources from the Judiciary so that they also carry an equivalent burden. I want to thank the Members of this House because they have categorically stated that they do not want to travel as much as they have been travelling because they are very cognisant of the problems that we are dealing with as an economy. That is why we have cut Ksh3.7 billion from Parliament. The Judiciary and the Executive have also lost. The cuts have also been both horizontal and vertical. We have cut in all levels of Government. Whereas the national Government is losing Ksh121 billion, our counties are also losing Ksh20 billion in equitable share. These are tough times. I want to congratulate all leaders for allowing that we have a lesser Budget in terms of size, and allowing everyone to take a cut. Hon. Speaker, what are the other areas that have suffered? When I was moving the main Budget, there was an increment in the NG-CDF of Ksh10 billion. I thank this House because Members have accepted that we can postpone the dream and live within the Budget that we had last Financial Year. Hon. Speaker, there was Ksh14.5 billion for rural areas electrification programme. I also thank the Members of this House because they have already agreed that we postpone the electrification project where every constituency was to get Ksh50 million. Hon. Speaker, beyond that, the road sector, of course, has been decimated. It has lost some quite colossal amounts of money just like the other sectors. I also want to assure this House that we have cut on ostentatious spending across board. Let me not dwell too much on the cuts. Let me go to the policy issues. There is something peculiar that we noted when we were considering this Supplementary Budget. One, we are considering the Supplementary Estimates barely a month after the passage of the main Budget and we are already seeing a high appetite by MDAs requesting that we enhance their Appropriations-in-Aid. The conclusion that we have come to as the Budget and Appropriations Committee is that MDAs have been grossly underestimating their Appropriations-in-Aid. So in our Report, we have recommended several things. We have clearly seen that our country is very rich. In that regard, two things have come up: one, Kenya is over-represented by organisations owned by Government. Hon. Speaker, when it comes to organisations owned by Government, Kenya has over 334 parastatals and Semi Autonomous Government Agencies (SAGAs). We have started the route of rationalising this area. In this Supplementary Budget, we have denied 47 of them money for operations and maintenance because they are either duplicating services or have been overtaken 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."
}