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{
    "id": 548773,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/548773/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 437,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. Bunyasi",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 2511,
        "legal_name": "John Sakwa Bunyasi",
        "slug": "john-sakwa-bunyasi"
    },
    "content": "Thank you, hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker. I will be very brief. I support the Motion but I find that the most devastating part of this is the big thing that keeps us together as a society; that makes our country and our households run, and that is respect for contracts written or unwritten so long as it is understood that, at a point in time, that is what you intend to do. It comes across as if the Executive wants to abrogate contracts that they have changed their mind about, unilaterally. As everybody here would know, if that principle for contracts did not work, we would not be sitting where we are. Everybody would do what they want. So, I take that it is a matter of strong principle. As a nation and as a House that makes and sometimes tightens those laws, we have to take this with great exception that a Government can refuse to pay simply on account of lack of budget resources 20 or 30 years later. That is not acceptable! There are many ways in which governments across the world have raised the money that they did not have at hand. You can issue bonds essentially that are payable in 10 years and you should get enough money to pay now. It is the tax on the rest of us but it is the State taking its own obligations in fulfillment of our own wishes as it were. Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, for teachers or for anybody else for that matter, who has toiled to their retirement age, maybe, 55 or 60 years, it is completely unfair to deny them that huge chunk of the State planning, some of which constitutes the amount they had put aside during their working years. They denied themselves with expectation that it would help them in their old age. I suggest that this amount should not be paid simply as base amounts agreed upon 10 years ago but rather, attract appropriate interest. They should be fully compensated based on the value of what was agreed back in 1997 and other agreements held later. Governments cannot pass the buck by postponing the payment of this money. They cannot postpone it to 2017 or 2022. I would urge strongly that the matter as raised by the Office of the Controller of Budget be handled expeditiously. I hope the Committee has looked at it and told the Controller of Budget to avoid using delaying tactics. This Government is losing a lot of money through low quality litigation or litigating things they should not be litigating. We are using billions of shillings to refuse to pay teachers who probably retired earning less than Kshs10,000 and whose pensions are going to be a couple of hundred of shillings - not even thousands. I think it is completely unfair. The Government ought to get the message that the obligation they signed will be obeyed and that is the only way we can hold the State together. We need to respect contracts and our obligations. It looks like the big brother - the Government itself - is not doing 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."
}