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{
    "id": 714962,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/714962/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 217,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. Ng’ongo",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 110,
        "legal_name": "John Mbadi Ng'ong'o",
        "slug": "john-mbadi"
    },
    "content": "have. Then you are told that part of that borrowing went to finance things like the National Youth Service (NYS). The NYS was a good idea, but if we are borrowing to clean and sweep the streets of Nyalenda in Kisumu, Mathare North and Kibera, much as we want those places to be clean, it is not prudent financial management to borrow money to invest in sweeping our streets. Even if you sweep streets, how will that help grow the economy? There is also something that I wanted to talk about. I have not even pointed to the corruption around the borrowed money. I want to talk about the infrastructural development in this country. We have started so many infrastructural projects across the country, a lot of them for political reasons. When we are debating as a National Assembly, we need to be realistic and think about the future of this country. It will get worse in this election year. It is not prudent for any person, or even a country, to start so many projects. You cannot start so many projects. I want to give an example. If today you start building your house in Nairobi, start building another one in the village, start building a duka or a shop somewhere in western Kenya or buy a car, it is not possible. It is not practical. That just shows how disorganised you are. We need to ask ourselves which are the strategic infrastructure projects to start. As a country, we have committed ourselves to many infrastructural projects whose economic value we have not analysed. The Chairman talked about the link and connection between the investment in the infrastructure and the growth of the manufacturing sector. The reason we develop our infrastructure is to give capacity to the manufacturing sector. It is only through the manufacturing sector that we can generate resources to pay for the infrastructure that we are putting in place. If you look at the growth in the manufacturing sector, it is not in tandem with the growth in the level of investment that we put in infrastructure. I also wanted to talk about the recently enacted cap on interest rates in the banking sector. I know there has been a lot of talk around the negative effects, but there is also the positive side. I want to urge the National Treasury to see how to come up with policies that will harness and take advantage of the possible positive benefits of this sector, one of which is that those who want to invest can now get loans cheaply. There will also be investments in other areas which are competing with banks like pension funds and even real estate. We need to encourage these other sectors to compete with the banking sector, so that those who are interested in investment do not lose out on getting money for investment. I wanted to talk about the division of revenue that is the vertical sharing of revenue. The Constitution mandates the National Assembly together with the Senate to debate and agree on how much should go to counties and how much should remain at the national Government level to finance the national Government activities. Article 203 of the Constitution spells out what needs to be taken into consideration while making that decision. It defeats logic if you can grow expenditure for the national Government at 13 per cent yet you are growing expenditure for the counties at 6.7 per cent. The inflation rate for the country is projected at 6.5 per cent. So, what we are telling the counties is that we are not giving them any additional money for development, but we are only taking care of the inflationary pressures for next year. Is that what we want for this country? I do not think so. Look at the kind of functions that we have devolved to the counties more particularly the road sector. As Members of Parliament especially the National Assembly, we have a responsibility. What is our responsibility? If the roads in the rural areas are impassable, no leader will be protected. The electorate does not understand who is responsible for a particular road. If we have devolved these roads to the counties especially Class D roads, we need to allocate them resources. Why can we not as a country--- 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."
}