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{
    "id": 1464050,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1464050/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 385,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Kiharu, UDA",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Ndindi Nyoro",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "Development partners do not give Kenya grants. Most of these monies are loans. When we talk about development partners, this House must be very firm that this is the Government of Kenya's money. After all, a loan is a sovereign debt and forms part of public debt. The summarisation of when we see semantics and other big names is that this is Kenya's money. When you walk into a bank, and the bank advances you money, it ceases to be the bank's money. It becomes your money because you have given security or other modalities. Therefore, money becomes your property when lent to you. There is a reason I am saying this. Many times, you hear people saying this or that is a World Bank project or an Africa Development Bank (ADB) project, even on national Government- funded projects. There is no World Bank project or ADB project in Kenya. All these projects are the projects of the Government of Kenya. We repay these monies. We pay dearly, even with interest. I will do a summary. The current Government has an agenda to execute. One is around industrialisation bordering on agriculture. We are calling them county aggregation and industrial parks. This is an overarching Government agenda. However, as we know, agriculture is devolved. County governments own part of the land on which we may end up building these facilities. The national Government has some of the land. There is a collaboration. What is the collaboration? The collaboration in this area is when county governments, through their county assemblies, appropriate Ksh250 million to go into these industrial parks. The national Government will follow up with another Ksh250 million to build industrial parks, totalling approximately Ksh500,000,000 million. The national Government and county governments took and funded the first 18 batches in the last financial year. However, we did not release all the monies by the lapse of the financial year. There was a proposal in the Bill we are debating today. We were to pick another 12 batches to be funded in this financial year. The Budget and Appropriations Committee thought it was not prudent to do so. We cannot go ahead and appropriate money for new projects when we have projects funded halfway from the previous 18 batches. The wisdom of the Committee in the Report was that we finish the first 18 batches so that Kenyans can get utility out of them. An industry can only operate when it is built up and is 100 per cent functional. It would be imprudent for us to jump to start new ones just for the political correctness happening everywhere and end up not enjoying utility for a long time. The Committee recommends that we fund the first 18 batches to completion when money is available. However, Hon. Temporary Speaker, you and the Members can see that money is insufficient. Why do I say so? In the previous Appropriations Bill before the Supplementary Estimates, I had taken care of Ksh61.9 billion for conditional grants in relevant departments. Conditional allocations in the Appropriations Bill we are debating have come down to Ksh46.6 billion. Why? Rationalisation. On what basis? Revenue-raising measures could not be supported. We understood what happened. Part of the area in the report is a climb down. Industrial parks were to get approximately Ksh4 billion. It is Ksh2 billion in this Report. However, the money will go to the 18 batches that have already started. Second is the Universal Health Coverage programme. It has human capital and equipment. Through the relevant Ministry, the Government bought the equipment needed by Community Health Promoters. This is also a joint programme. All the healthcare promoters will get a stipend of Ksh5,000. Because this is an overarching Government agenda, the national Government is not throwing this burden to county governments alone. It will share the burden equally on a 50-50 basis. County governments will pay Ksh2,500 to healthcare promoters. The national Government 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."
}