Entry Instance

HTTP 200 OK
Allow: GET, PUT, PATCH, DELETE, HEAD, OPTIONS
Content-Type: application/json
Vary: Accept

{
    "id": 58894,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/58894/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 255,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Mr. Okemo",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 198,
        "legal_name": "Chrysanthus Barnabas Okemo",
        "slug": "chrysanthus-okemo"
    },
    "content": "Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, in supporting this Motion I have a few comments that I would like to make. One is that the amount of the Budget that goes to the Development Expenditure and the amount that goes to Recurrent Expenditure, as reflected in the Approved Estimates, is in the ratio of 60 per cent to 40 per cent, which is good. What is happening in the Supplementary Estimates is that the ratio is being tilted against development. This is because the Recurrent Expenditure is going up and the Development Expenditure is going down at the same time. This brings the ratio of Recurrent Expenditure to about 62.5 per cent and Development Expenditure to 37.5 per cent. Therefore, what this means is that the measures that the Government is taking are actually working against growth. You do not get growth from Recurrent Expenditure; you get growth from Development Expenditure. If all the cuts are actually affecting the development budget, then you are eroding the potential for economic growth in the country. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, when you look at the areas that have been affected, the biggest cuts have gone to the Ministry of Finance, which has a big cut of Kshs8.16 billion. It is followed by the Ministry of Roads, with a cut of Kshs5.8 billion, and then the Ministry of Environment and Mineral Resources, which is a very critical Ministry and has a cut of Kshs1.86 billion. Next is the Ministry of Information and Communications with a cut of about slightly over one billion shillings. When you look at all these, I think we have a problem. We have implementation challenges which the Government must address. We need roads so badly in this country. A lot of work is going on and we like it. What we see going around is commendable work. However, if we see money being returned or money being reduced, yet the road network in the rural areas is in deplorable condition, then we are worried. We ask whether the Government really has its priorities right? We see that the Minister very recently implemented a project called “Funding for Small and Medium Enterprises”, which I thought was a wonderful idea; he actually allocated it Kshs3.8 billion, but a few months down the road the amount is slashed to Kshs1 billion. The question I asked was, was it a well thought out programme? Was it properly structured? In fact, this is exactly the repeat of the Economic Stimulus Programme (ESP). We had money allocated; the structures were never put in place; then implementation challenges cropped up and at that stage we had to deal with them. Then the stimulus programme began to be implemented very much later. That is why we are in the situation in which we are. So, I would like to recommend to the Minister that a thing like the Small and Medium Enterprise Funding Scheme should be thought out well in advance. It should involve many stakeholders, so that by the time you are putting together your Budget all the structures are already in place, rather than thinking of the concept, the structures are not there, the money is put in the Budget then later on implementation challenges make it difficult for you to implement it. I think other than that, these are the usual Supplementary Estimates, the unexpected things that happen, and you have to put money here and there, or you find that it is not going to be possible to spend a certain amount of money. This is all part of the planning process. I think you should involve us more. This time we have not been engaged with you as much as we have done in the last Supplementary Estimates. Maybe some of these things we could have brought them out and corrective action could have been taken. I beg to support."
}