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"content": "Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir. I stand to support the Motion. It is with a heavy heart that I support this Motion on account of the fact that I know that no economy grows without borrowing. But this House risks being labled âa reckless Houseâ. We have passed several laws here that we cannot live with. We have just gone through the Budget process, namely, the Vote on Account, and I have reservations in the manner in which we passed that. Among the documents that were read by the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Finance when he read his Budget was the Medium Term Debt Strategy Paper. Going through that document, you will see that the Government is slowly regretting the amount of borrowing it has engaged in. Examples abound over the world. We know of Spain and Greece. These are economies that have over-mortgaged themselves. You will appreciate that the increased borrowing normally reduced the fiscal space for service delivery because every loan is a first charge on the Consolidated Fund. But more fundamentally, I want to raise some issues. Every time money issues come to this House, the speed is normally astronomical. We have just done with the Vote on Account and you saw the speed. With hindsight, I remember that sometime back, we attempted to increase this ceiling and it was not successful. Previously before that, there was a Sessional Paper that was brought to this House by the then Acting Finance Minister, hon. Michuki. The Sessional Paper was seeking to get authority of the House to guarantee borrowing by the National Cereals and Produce Board (NCPB). Around that time, the talk was that Kenyans were dying and we must not stand in their way. We need money to borrow. The Executive is very good at dramatizing these things. This House gave the authority to guarantee. However, no borrowing took place and no maize was imported."
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