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{
    "id": 217585,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/217585/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 222,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Mr. Tarus",
    "speaker_title": "The Assistant Minister, Office of the President",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 315,
        "legal_name": "Stephen Kipkiyeny Tarus",
        "slug": "stephen-tarus"
    },
    "content": " Thank you, Mr. Speaker, Sir. I want to thank the Minister for Finance, again, for the Budget Speech he presented. I would also like to hasten to recognise the fact that budgeting also provides an opportunity for the economy to grow even faster. Having realised economic growth at the rate of 6 per cent, it is high time we asked ourselves: When we have such commendable economic growth, how do we realise economic development? This allows Kenyans to enjoy the opportunities of new growth, new wealth and new services. Mr. Speaker, Sir, I expect that the Budget that was read will help the country to realise--- I heard the Minister indicate that we are moving according to the plans of the Economic Recovery Strategy (ERS) which ends at the end of the year and allow also the beginning of the programme of the Vision 2030. However, we realise the areas that have provided the highest growth. I suppose that in this case, the agricultural and manufacturing sectors have provided that opportunity. Mr. Speaker, Sir, however, while preparing the Budget, we expected him to address the issue of redistribution of resources. I realised that the Minister was trying to raise enough capital, but when you have a budget deficit, and particularly in an election year, my worry is that if we do not realise the capital or funds that we intend to raise through internal borrowing, what will happen to the financial sector? I hope that budget deficit or internal borrowing does not create room for increasing the cost of borrowing. Once the banks know that the Government is looking for funds from them, what will happen is that they will make their loans expensive and those who have committed themselves to loans for some period of time, they will repay their loans at a cost that is higher than what they had expected. Therefore, I hope that the Minister will ensure that while pursuing the issue of raising enough capital to support development, the banks will not harass people with their usual habit of increasing interest rates. With regard to the redistribution of income, I am happy that the Minister retained the support for Free Primary Education (FPE) and also subsidised secondary school education through the waiver on tuition fees. We also know that the number of students leaving secondary school are so many. There are so many students who have qualified to join our universities, but they are unable to do that because of lack of space in the universities. I also expected that this year will 1936 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES June 20, 2007 provide an opportunity to increase the amount allocated to the Higher Education Loans Board (HELB) because it has been helping the poor. If we have programmes that are pro-poor, I expect that if we increase support for higher education, then we shall have more students from poor families join our universities. As a result of lack of space in our local universities--- Space in our universities is pegged on accommodation, rather than space for academics. Our students are now seeking admission in foreign countries. I hope that we shall be able to provide the opportunity for our students who are pursuing higher education. Mr. Speaker, Sir, with those remarks, I beg to support."
}