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{
    "id": 1532572,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1532572/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 4825,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Kitui Rural, WDM",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. David Mwalika",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "On the mixture of development and recurrent expenditures, the recommended expenditure on development is 30 per cent, but it has been going down. In most county governments, it has gone to ten per cent. This affects development and economic growth. You do not expect growth if you are not investing in development projects. It is high time we increase the development expenditures so that we can realise economic growth. It is also high time we look at wastage. Before I joined Parliament, I was an international consultant. We did a study on the Lamu Port-South Sudan-Ethiopia-Transport (LAPSSET) Corridor Project. All its projects were implemented. They were supposed to contribute two per cent to Gross Domestic Product (GDP). The current nominal GDP of Ksh15 trillion is around Ksh300 billion to the GDP. This created employment and income and reduced poverty. However, when you look at our budgets, you see nothing being allocated to some of these projects. For example, Lamu Port is lying idle. I do not know how many aeroplanes use Isiolo Airport, which was completed in 2016, almost ten years ago. That is money allocated to that airport and Lamu Port, but there are almost zero returns. We are paying loans for them. It is high time we think about some of these projects and how to complete them to generate income for this country. Hon. Temporary Speaker, there is something shocking: A data recovery centre in Naivasha. Last year, or last year but one, we went there with our Chairman, Hon Kuria Kimani. Congratulations, my friend, on being retained as the Chairman of the Departmental Committee on Finance and National Planning. The centre was supposed to cost Ksh1 billion, but some changes occurred. Some things happened, and there was a dispute between the contractor and the Government. The contractor went to Court and was awarded Ksh5.2 billion. The project is not complete up to now. It is hardly 60 per cent complete, but this person was awarded Ksh5.2 billion for nothing, which is a waste. It is high time we look at it."
}