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{
    "id": 1503304,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1503304/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 544,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Kesses, UDA",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Julius Rutto",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": " Thank you very much, Hon. Temporary Speaker for the opportunity you have accorded me. First of all, I want to start by appreciating my brother, the Chairperson of the Departmental Committee of Finance and National Planning. I can confirm that the leadership he demonstrates in the Committee has resulted in the Bill before this House. You will agree with me that it has gone through a rigorous process under his leadership. As I support this Bill, I want to touch on issues affecting Kenyans. This administration believes it is possible to build Kenya using the BETA. The issue of expanding the local contracts from Ksh500 million to Ksh1 billion goes without saying that we have a resilient country. Kenyans are very aggressive but lack opportunities. They have been willing to compete even on projects and contracts that go beyond Ksh1 billion, but since they have not secured them, they have been facing unnecessary competition from foreigners. These are the same foreigners who come in the context of giving us skills, but in real sense they are only coming to make money and go back. They come along with their own technical skills and equipment. Most of them end up executing the projects here and when they go back, they carry everything. They only leave the projects to us which we do not know how to maintain, thereafter. For this particular purpose, we need to support this amendment so that we support our young Kenyans who have been trained. Our institutions produce the best technically skilled people but they have no place to practise their technical skills, to showcase their knowledge, and build capacity. This amendment is able to give us an opportunity to build our capacity and compete nationally. Who knows? In future, we might even compete internationally. Hon. Temporary Speaker, the second issue that I applaud in this amendment is the focus on delayed payments. You will agree with me that what is hurting our nation is the issue of pending bills. If you want to ask yourself the cause of these pending bills, it will all draw back to delayed procurement process, lack of transparency, procurement that is not even in line with the best practices and the budget-making process. Someone thinks of what to procure and proceed without even having committed resources to it, therefore, landing us into the situation we are in. This amendment will sort out the issue of pending bills both in the national Government and the devolved governments. It will facilitate the growth of our economy. We all know that the Government factor plays a critical role in ensuring that our economy grows."
}