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"id": 1545147,
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"speaker_name": "Sen. Oketch Gicheru",
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"content": "Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, that is a good question. The relationship is very simple. Since you were born, you are almost going towards your old age, you have been paying a lot of debt in this country that you do not understand, and that has not helped you. I see you working very hard. Every day you are in this House to work for the nation. You are earning a meagre income, which again, 50 per cent of it must go to pay the debt. Now, I am imagining what will your children remain with. You, you have worked as a donkey for this country and you have paid everything but now, what is going to happen to your children when you wake up in June and they have got Kshs11.07 trillion worth of debt? This is what I am crying about. I sympathize with you, and I empathize with you. I hope that, as a House, you will see how serious this thing is affecting us to the extent that we must take control of the debt management process. One thing that we must also insist on as a House, is that next time the National Treasury comes here, and before we consider the BPS, they must give us a scientific rationale of where they are coming up with these debt numbers. If you go to the National Treasury, they have got a different figure from the Office of the Controller of Budget; they have a different figure from the Auditor-General; they have got a different figure from the Central Bank of Kenya. Who is telling us the truth? As I have told you, that entire debt stock, when it was borrowed, we were not explained to on what it was going to do. When it is now being consumed, we are not told what it is doing. I remember in the former regime, there was a deficit of about Kshs500 billion when it came, and from the Auditor-General's report, when you followed the Kshs500 billion, it was committed to infrastructure in one region. How do you borrow Kshs500 billion and then commit it to infrastructure in one region? How is it fair yet, the control of that infrastructure in Migori County, where I come from, does not concern that infrastructure? I empathize with the Senator of Kisii County because he is always the most vocal about debt issues. Where he comes from, I did not see that money working in Kisii. I did not see that money in Turkana nor in Mandera. Even, where you come from in Meru, Mr Deputy Speaker, Sir, I looked at those numbers and I did not see that money in Meru. It was not there, Kshs500 billion. Today, when it comes to paying it, all of us must participate, and not just participate, it is equal distribution. I pay the same amount of debt as the person from Tana River, who is labouring in back-breaking dust every single day, riding boda boda to make a living. Then out of that 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."
}