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{
    "id": 639391,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/639391/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 261,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. Ochieng",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 2955,
        "legal_name": "David Ouma Ochieng'",
        "slug": "david-ouma-ochieng"
    },
    "content": "Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, the current Financial Year has been very bad for this country. Most Government departments, counties and ministries have not got their monies on time. The National Treasury talks about “absorption capacity.” The issue is that the National Treasury is not releasing money on time. Since Independence, Kenya has never had a balance in the Budget. It is important for us, as a people and country, to start working towards a balanced Budget. When will we say that our Budget does not include huge deficits or that our Budget does not include huge amounts of money that are going to payment of debts? At some point towards the end of last year, Kenya was at a level where monies collected in the morning were being used to pay debts in the evening. Going forward, we need to balance our Budget. We can work around it. This is where the role of Parliament comes in. Parliament is not just supposed to allocate money the way we are doing today. It is supposed to apportion money and say; “this ministry will have this amount of money. That Commission will have this amount of money.” But what do we do nowadays? We sit back and wait for the ministries to work on their budgets and bring them to us. We do not change anything on those budgets. The role of Parliament in Budget-making should be actual, practical and hands-on, and not the kind of things we do where the Cabinet Secretaries (CSs) come and tell us; “this is what we have decided will happen. This is how we are going to do it.” 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."
}