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{
    "id": 255751,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/255751/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 71,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Mr. Obwocha",
    "speaker_title": "The Minister for Planning and National Development",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 356,
        "legal_name": "Henry Onyancha Obwocha",
        "slug": "henry-obwocha"
    },
    "content": " Thank you, Mr. Speaker, Sir. I beg to second this Motion and congratulate His Excellency the President for a focused Speech which laid before this House issues which we will discuss. Mr. Speaker, Sir, first of all, I want to criticise myself and the other hon. Members that we were not able to do what other East African Parliaments have done. Out of 25 Bills, we were only able to pass ten. Three were returned to the relevant Departmental Committees and seven were passed. In terms of performance, that is only 33 per cent. If it was an examination, all of us would have failed. So, I want to urge my colleagues, particularly those in Departmental Committees to scrutinise these Bills and come up with suggestions so that we do not take too long to enact some of these laws. 56 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 23 March, 2006 Mr. Speaker, Sir, secondly, although there has been too much noise on the political arena, the economy has been progressing quite steadily. By the economic growth having risen from 2.8 per cent in 2003/2004 to 4.3 per cent in 2004/2005 and this year it is expected to be 5 per cent plus, I think we are on the right path. The indicators are the interest rates, particularly those of the Treasury Bills which are around 8 per cent. Mr. Speaker, Sir, the public debt remains almost constant which means that we are not borrowing excessively. The external debt stands at Kshs450 billion and the domestic debt stands at about Kshs300 billion. The total debt for Kenya comes to about Kshs750 billion. Basically, that is about only US$10 billion. Compared to other countries, this is not significant. In fact, if you consider the 14 countries under \"Highly Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC)\" in Africa whose debts were granted relief and a country like Nigeria whose half external debt was written off, ours is very minimal. Nigeria's external debt which was written off totals US$17 billion and our total debt, both domestic and external is only US$10 billion. So, if these development partners and the Bretton Woods Institutions would understand Kenya's case, we would go places. Mr. Speaker, Sir, the performance of local companies is encouraging. This is evident from the profits they are declaring especially those in the manufacturing sector. For example, the East African Portland Cement Company declared profits in excess of Kshs1 billion. Parastatals under the Ministry of Energy, where I am the acting Minister, like KenGen, made profits in excess of Kshs2 billion and we have already privatised part of KenGen. We have launched an Initial Public Offer (IPO). So, I ask the hon. Members of Parliament to take advantage of that issue and buy themselves some shares in KenGen. Mr. Speaker, Sir, finally on the economy, the Ministry of Planning and National Development in tackling the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) which as the hon. Members know are; the eradication of poverty, maternal health and child mortality, tackling of the HIV/AIDS scourge, universal free primary education, gender and women empowerment and, of course, the environment, has really tried. You can see that many of these issues have been tackled by the Constituency Development Fund (CDF). This is one of the areas that is enhancing the tackling of the Millennium Development Goals (MDG). We can achieve these goals by the year 2015. We intend to double the Constituencies Development Fund (CDF)."
}