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{
    "id": 276735,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/276735/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 571,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Mr. Githae",
    "speaker_title": "The Minister for Finance",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 159,
        "legal_name": "Robinson Njeru Githae",
        "slug": "robinson-githae"
    },
    "content": " Thank you very much, Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir. I thank the Members of this august House for the support they have given to the Supplementary Budget. I will only talk about three issues that have come up. One is on the Lamu Port – South Sudan – Ethiopia Corridor and I would like to assure this House that it is just a coincidence that it is being inaugurated during an election year. This has nothing to do with elections whatsoever. In any case, I would not even have allowed it to be part of electioneering and if I had the slightest suspicion that it was being done for electioneering, I would definitely not support it. However, this is an important project because it will open up that area of eastern Kenya. It is an important project that needs to be supported. Why is there an increase in the allocation to the Ministry of Lands? Basically, this is because of the need to purchase land for the IDPs. That is the reason for the increase. Somebody raised an issue on why we have reduced the budget for the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission. It is not that we do not want to fight corruption. The reason why the amount has been reduced is because they had proposed the construction of offices but due to a court case, this did not proceed. Therefore, the amount was surrendered and applied elsewhere. Another Member raised an issue about the increase in the Cabinet Office. This is basically because of the support required by the Government on donor funding. We have got some donor funding for the e-government and we are required to have a counter funding from the Government. That is the reason why it is there. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, the reason why the Foreign Affairs’ budget has been increased is because we are compensating them for the depreciation of the Kenyan Shilling. They were really affected when our Kenyan Shilling depreciated to Kshs107 against the dollar because they are paid in foreign currency. However, here, it is done in Kenyan shillings and when they did the conversion, they were really affected. Some missions could not even pay for fuel and that was the reason for the increase. I think those are the issues that arose."
}