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{
    "id": 1545688,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1545688/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 243,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Cheruiyot",
    "speaker_title": "The Senate Majority Leader",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13165,
        "legal_name": "Aaron Kipkirui Cheruiyot",
        "slug": "aaron-cheruiyot"
    },
    "content": "management because we find ourselves in this situation because you, people, cannot override interest. Therefore, this is a prescribed solution.\" When you are designing a solution for any problem, you design it knowing or bearing in mind the kind of people that are going to implement it. The National Treasury has demonstrated that the National Assembly may carry the biggest blame when we eventually find ourselves in a situation where we are defaulting on our debt because they cannot be the ones to lead the country. It is only the Senate here, in partnership with the Parliamentary Budget Office, that is able to sit down and consolidate, crunch the numbers and define a fiscal consolidation path, complete with numbers. We pass it as we do the PFM amendment. We should go all the way to 2030, and then define the path for them. Now, you work backwards and illustrate the amount of money available. How do we manage our economy? Unfortunately, we first list the things that we want, then ask ourselves where we will find the money. I do not know anybody else who does that kind of budgeting. I thought the common norm is to first look at what you have, then look at what you afford. I really hope that the Committee on Finance and Budget will lead us into the realisation of that proposal that we passed here in the month of June, 2024, immediately after the invasion of Parliament because we gave a commitment to the country. We cannot get to another June without the committee sitting together with Parliamentary Budget Office to lead the country out of this messy situation as opposed to just ordinary reactions to the proposal. It is very clear in my mind, even as the Senate Majority Leader, that the answer to this debt situation can never come from the National Treasury. It has to come from Parliament. It cannot come from both Houses of Parliament. I dare say, much as you need whatever solution you will have prescribed to pass through both Houses, the Senate must lead the way because we are less conflicted. Many times, people look at the Senate and say that we do not manage any resources. They imagine that it is a bad thing. I actually think that was the intended design of our Constitution. The fact that you are not emotionally invested in any way to budgeted figures makes you a neutral arbiter in the determination of prioritisation of needs. However, so long as you take it to a House like the National Assembly, where Members look into what has gone into the State Department, for reasons that Sen. Maanzo knows better than us, because he used to be in that House - you will never achieve this fiscal consolidation. I hope that Sen. Tabitha Mutinda and members of the PBO have heard my sentiments. I know you are keen and listening to follow through conversations such as this because the Senate must lead the way. I am certain that it is only the Senate of the Republic of Kenya that can lead the country on a proper fiscal consolidation path that is written in law, so that everybody else can be asked to follow through. That is the only way that we shall redeem our country from the debt strain that we find ourselves in. With those many remarks, I beg to support and urge colleagues to take time and read this Report and propose something better than just a report to be voted for, to go gather dust at the National Treasury. I thank you. 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."
}