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{
    "id": 1545675,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1545675/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 230,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen Tabitha Mutinda",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "I now take this opportunity to second my colleague, Sen. (Dr.) Boni Khalwale, Senior on the issue of the 2025 Medium-Term Debt Management Strategy that we as a committee have deliberated on. I am happy to say that the Cabinet Secretary, Hon. John Mbadi appeared before the Committee today. We were able to get into some of the issues, definitely pertaining to the issue of debt, which I think when I was doing my contribution on the Budget Policy Statement, I touched on because they interrelate. We deal with these two matters of the Budget Policy Statement and 2025 Medium-Term Debt Management Strategy concurrently. The issue that we focused on was to try and understand the increment of the debt compared to the Gross domestic product (GDP) which is currently at 65.7 percent. Madam Temporary Speaker, this was of concern because last year, this was capped at 55.5 per cent. However, the Cabinet Secretary was able to state before the Committee that actually this has reduced from 72 per cent to where it is at 65.7 per cent of the GDP. It has been a reduction, which has been brought about by strengthening of the Kenya shilling versus the dollar, and which has saved us a whopping Kshs24 billion as a country, money that has been able to be transferred to schools for capitation as well as other budgets. As I mentioned earlier, we were also able to raise the issue of domestic borrowing at 65 per cent and the external borrowing at 35per cent, putting in mind the position of the private sector because of the interest rates at the banks. Madam Temporary Speaker, on the issue of debts, we also deliberated on pending bills, both at the county level and at the national level, because we have quite a chunk and this issue of pending bills, is a thorny issue. We were able to ask the Minister the amount of non-performing loans as far as the issue of pending bills are concerned. The way Kenyans are suffering, they are not able to pay their loans simply because their supplies have also not been paid, yet each and every year we are budgeting. So, we asked the National Treasury the same thing we also asked the Council of Governors (CoG), to push to reduce the pending bills so that money can be able to circulate. Most business people are stuck because of pending bills, yet services have been 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."
}