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{
    "id": 509318,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/509318/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 59,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. Wandayi",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 2960,
        "legal_name": "James Opiyo Wandayi",
        "slug": "james-opiyo-wandayi"
    },
    "content": "Thank you, hon. Speaker. I want to contribute to this Motion, but I will oppose it with an extremely heavy heart. This is because I am unable to come to terms with what is being proposed in this Motion. Hon. Speaker, it was only in January, 2013 when this debt ceiling was increased from Kshs0.8 trillion to Kshs1.2 trillion. About 15 months later, we are proposing to increase it to a whopping Kshs.2.5 trillion. There is no gainsaying the fact that the envisaged projects are useful to the country’s economic development. No one can argue with that fact. Those projects are noble but these ambitious plans to engage in monumental borrowing leaves every Kenyan worried because even as we borrow money, we need to know that this is a burden that we shall be passing over to future generations. As a country and as a generation, we have a responsibility to protect the interests, not only of our generation but also of the future generations. Hon. Speaker, I have also looked at the kind of infrastructure projects that have been outlined for implementation with this borrowed money. However, I am worried because, firstly, there is this so-called one million acre irrigation project. It is being cited as one of the mega projects supposed to be financed with this borrowed money. As we speak, this very project is steeped in serious controversy. If the House may not be aware, the phase one of that project which was about a feasibility study to come up with the way forward in terms of its eventual implementation, a whopping Kshs1 billion was spent; taxpayers’ money. What is worrying is that the company that was earmarked or selected to undertake this feasibility study, which is an Israeli company, asked for about Kshs1 billion without going through any tendering process. So, without going through any transparent tendering process, we are now told that the main project has been conceived and, indeed, the tender has been awarded to the same company. The same company that The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor."
}