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{
    "id": 1593018,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1593018/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 486,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Kikuyu, UDA",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Kimani Ichung’wah",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "We are guilty as charged because these are simple things that should take a very short time to implement. I must challenge our Committee on Implementation to ensure that the National Treasury and all other agencies that are charged with implementing many of the recommendations in this Report and other previous reports do so fully, so that we realise the gains that we ought to realise and save our public debt spending. Hon. Deputy Speaker, if you read through this Report, you will see that between financial year 2015/2016 and financial year 2025/2026, the public debt interest payment as a share of our Gross Domestic Product (GDP) has grown from 3.2 per cent in 2015/2016 financial year to a projected 5.7 per cent in 2025/2026 financial year. This is a very big leap. It is almost doubling because it is just 0.7 per cent to be double what it was about 10 years ago. Consequently, as that number kept going up, the development expenditure has also been going down from a high of 7.2 per cent in 2015/2016 financial year to 3.5 per cent in 2025/2026 financial year. A country that spends 3.5 per cent on development expenditure as a share of GDP cannot grow at the rate that we want our country to grow. We must devote more money to development expenditure. I noticed that as much as the Committee speaks about other sources of financing, including off-balance sheet sources of financing, we must commend this administration. For the first time, a number of big ongoing infrastructural projects like housing are being funded by the Housing Levy, which helps to spur economic growth in the country. What would happen if that level of investment went into construction of roads or dams and water ponds across the country to ensure that there is enough water storage capacity in the country to cater for our use during the dry season? It would spur very good economic growth in the country and therefore reduce on the amounts that we have to borrow. Hon. Deputy Speaker, lastly, I will comment on resource mobilisation. This is usually a very uncomfortable debate to engage with anybody, right from Caesar's time in the Bible when Jesus said, “Give unto Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God.” I look forward to hearing from the Cabinet Secretary for the National Treasury and Economic Planning tomorrow on the revenue raising measures. As we speak about the debt levels, keeping in mind that we passed in Financial Estimates this morning, we must bear in mind that that goes hand-in-hand with the level of resources that we can mobilise locally from our own taxes. This is because unless and until we are able to mobilise adequate resources to cater for our expenditure, we will continue to expand on our fiscal deficit and end up with increased borrowing to finance our public expenditure. In the interest of time, I will end at this point as I appeal to the Chairman to ensure that all the recommendations in the Committee's Report are implemented fully. I particularly have a very keen interest on implementation of TSA and other recommendations that I have mentioned, especially around e-procurement to save government some money. Thank you, Hon. Deputy Speaker."
}