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{
    "id": 1501861,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1501861/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 63,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Cheruiyot",
    "speaker_title": "The Senate Majority Leader",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13165,
        "legal_name": "Aaron Kipkirui Cheruiyot",
        "slug": "aaron-cheruiyot"
    },
    "content": "undermine the very reason for which citizens may want to protest. The assurance that has been given on the topic of how the police handled this particular matter is that the Independent Policing Oversight Authority (IPOA) continues to carry out this investigation. The only question that we must ask is how much more time do they need before we can eventually get a report. In the Motion of the Senate that we passed here in June, we had proposed specific things that need to be done in this country, including a review of the standing orders of the police on how to guide citizens in terms of protest. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, I move on to an extremely important topic; the issue of debt. Debt continues to be an extremely difficult subject for any administration. Remember what our debt exposure is to date and the kind of debates that we have had on the floor of this House on what we need to do. I appreciate that members of the Standing Committee on Finance and Budget continue to remind us each year when we do the Budget Policy Statement (BPS) of the need to reduce our fiscal deficit. Unless we learn to live within our means, we shall continue to be a country that is riddled in debt and our economy will never stabilize. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, we must appreciate and learn to be factual about the challenges that we continue to face, especially in the debt space. In the legislation that we passed here in 2023, we demanded of the National Treasury, as Parliament, that each year we are furnished with a report of our debt exposure showing how much has been repaid and how much more debt has been incurred over the years. I want to believe that if that report had been properly filed, you would not have Senators sometimes speaking ignorantly. I saw Sen. Onyonka over the weekend saying that the debt accumulated in the last two years is over Kshs7 trillion. That is not accurate. I sympathize with him because he was speaking on the topic of integrity and the need to be truthful while lying at the same time. If such reports had been provided to the House, Senators would not have spoken out of turn like that. Therefore, I challenge colleagues who sit in the Committee on Finance and Budget to make sure that the reporting mechanisms that we provide in the laws that we pass are actually adhered to. Each afternoon before we even get to the Notices of Motion, I usually table reports from various State departments in this House. I expect that Senators will take time to read and react to those particular issues. It was calm and reassuring and we appreciate the fact that we are not yet out of the woods, but we are certainly not at the place where we were two years ago. Repayment of some of the very critical debt that was pressing hard against us has helped us to stabilize on inflation. It has been boosted by the very presence of a strong foreign exchange reserve that we presently enjoy. It was stated actually that the figure of the foreign exchange reserve has surged from US$2.4 billion to US$9.4 billion; the highest in quite a number of years. That has helped us. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, unfortunately, these numbers and figures do not mean much to the ordinary citizen until the day and time that we are able to translate the good figures on Harambee Avenue and here in Parliament into figures in the pockets of ordinary citizens. 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."
}