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{
    "id": 833256,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/833256/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 245,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Kiharu, JP",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Ndindi Nyoro",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13370,
        "legal_name": "Samson Ndindi Nyoro",
        "slug": "samson-ndindi-nyoro"
    },
    "content": " Thank you, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker. I stand guided and I rise to support the Supplementary Appropriation Bill. From the outset, I have to say that fiscal planning is actually one of the hardest things to do because you are dealing with limited resources. But you have to appropriate them with needs that are actually unlimited. Therefore, it is always a matter of priority. What do I fund and when? What cannot wait and what has to be done now? I have to say in this House that whereas I applaud the work that is being done by the people who are charged to do the monetary policy in this country, I have a lot of reservations with the people we have entrusted to do fiscal policies in this country. I say so because if you look at the monetary landscape in this country, you talk about inflation and the exchange rate. We are in a very stable atmosphere, but it has to be noted that it is not the work of the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) or the CBK Governor or the monetary committee to actually grow the economy. They are doing their work very well. They are doing a splendid job but when we come to the other side that should actually be stimulating the growth of the economy by having good fiscal planning, I have to say I have a lot of reservations. This could be the reason why, in our country, we have so much we are doing infrastructure-wise. We have billions being spent but the truth of the matter is that even some of us seated here are businesspeople and our pockets, just like the pockets of so many other businesspeople in this country, are empty. That shows that there are gaps when it comes to Treasury and planning and advising the Government in the matters of fiscal policy. Let me go to the Report. I have gone through the entire budget and even beyond the Supplementary Budget and it is now common knowledge in Kenya that we are borrowing so much. By the way, I have no problem with borrowing because some of the biggest economies in the world borrow. Even the United States of America (USA), its debt to GDP ratio is around 107 per cent, which is much higher than ours which is around 57 per cent. Japan has a debt to GDP ratio of over 240 per cent. Even the United Kingdom (UK), Russia and most other countries are beyond us in so far as debt to GDP is concerned. The departure point between those economies and ours is: Number one, it is about cost. Japan is at about 240 but at what cost? They have over- borrowed compared to Kenya, but at what cost? The rate in Japan is barely above 0 per cent. If you compare the CBR in the USA, even after having been raised five times in the Trump administration alone, it is around 2.5 per cent compared to ours which is around 9 per cent. Therefore, the issue of cost of borrowing is one that we need to keep checking on even when we borrow. Number two is on the issue of borrowing and how we spend the money that we borrow. There is no way, as a country, you can borrow money and tabulate everything that we have. Actually, before I come to borrowing, let us go to the collection. The amount of money that the KRA collects is around Kshs1.5 trillion. If you give money to devolution and our salaries, only below Kshs100 billion is left for development. That means a lot of the money that we put into infrastructural and developmental issues is actually borrowed money. If you look at the The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposes only. Acertified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor."
}