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"speaker_name": "Mr. Mwiraria",
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"content": "Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I rise to support this Motion. Let me start off by congratulating the Minister for Finance for a good, well balanced Budget. I have sat in this House listening to some of the contributions and it appears there is a complete misunderstanding as to what constitutes a budget deficit. Yesterday afternoon one hon. Member talked of a budget deficit of Kshs107 billion and that is really not the case. The true position is that the Kshs107 billion is the shortfall between available revenue and expenditure. There are other sources of funds including sale of parastatals which will make good this shortfall. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I left my notes and I cannot quite therefore, quote the actual figures, but I do know that the deficit to be financed through local borrowing amounts to about Kshs36 billion. That really is not a cause for concern. I would only like to make one comment on what I consider to be the only aspect of the budget that I did not agree with. This is the increase in paid up capital from Kshs250 million to Kshs1 billion for anybody who wants to start a bank in Kenya. Our experience during the last days of the KANU regime clearly indicated that the country needs local banks which have got a broad network and are representative in most parts of this country. These should be banks which do not consider the profit motive to be their only reason for being operational. We saw banks pull out of very many of our small towns like Isiolo, Nanyuki, Maua and others all over the country, purely because they wanted to maximise their profits. They were not interested in offering services to the mwananchi . Unless mwananchi has banking facilities and June 27, 2007 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 2077 financing at affordable interest rates, I am afraid we are wasting our time talking of developing this country and increasing the tempo of development. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I am happy that the Government did everything possible to revive all the local banks, KCB, Co-operative Bank of Kenya and the National Bank of Kenya. But I want to make one point. By lowering the paid up capital for banks, some of the smaller banks were able--- In fact, some of the micro-financial institutions like K-Rep, Equity and Family Finance were able to form themselves into banks. They became banks which, today, can boast of paid up capital above the Kshs1 billion. Much as I respect the idea of getting small banks together so that they can raise the paid up capital and become large banks, I feel that we are closing out Kenyans who could afford to establish banks with smaller capital. I want really to suggest a way out. Let us maintain the paid up capital of Kshs1 billion for national banks. But the Government should then consider approving what we may call provincial or regional banks at lesser capital. We should allow them to be established and work on their capital. Once their capital grows up to Kshs1 billion, they can then be allowed to become national banks. That way, we should be able to get more banks in the country attending to the business and financial requirements of the public in all parts of the country. The other question that I really want to comment very briefly on is on the manufacturers of some of the items which wananchi consume on a daily basis, like bread. They are threatening to increase the prices by as much as Kshs7, Kshs8 and Kshs9 for a loaf of bread under the guise that the removal of light plastics from the market would force them to increase costs. I know one firm which has been selling bread wrapped in paper. They have been selling at the same price as those who have been selling using the light plastics. What I am saying is that it is necessary for the Government to ensure that the removal of light plastics from our market is not used as an excuse to get money from poor Kenyans who have to live under fairly difficult conditions. If need be, the Government can show that you can get ordinary paper for the same cost, if not less. It should be possible, therefore, to wrap things in papers. We can get a paper bag that can be used to sell sugar, salt and other items at the same prices. Traders normally make excuses of anything to increase prices to benefit themselves. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, let me briefly comment on the allocation of resources in the Budget. Once again, I would like to congratulate the Minister for laying emphasis on the sectors which matter. That is the social sector where there have been substantial increases in the provision of expenditure on education and health. Those are key sectors. It is, really, gratifying to see that the major increases in the Budget are in those areas. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, the other area that I would like to address is with regard to roads. This section has been given, by far, the highest increase but for a very good reason. In some of our constituencies, where we have good rainfall and where we grow a lot of items which are required in towns and outside the constituency, during the rainy season, cabbages and other vegetables go to waste because they cannot be moved to the market. So, I really want to appeal to the Minister for Roads and Public Works to give priority to roads which help farmers move their goods to the market. We should not just make roads for the sake of doing so, so that they are seen to be there. We should make roads to help develop the economy. I know that the Ministry is doing a lot but we could do with a little more injection of capital in some of the wetter areas with a high agriculturally potential. Thank you."
}