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{
    "id": 841582,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/841582/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 498,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Halake",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13184,
        "legal_name": "Abshiro Soka Halake",
        "slug": "abshiro-soka-halake"
    },
    "content": "I know we have made a lot of noise about the 16 per cent Fuel Levy. Probably, we missed the point because that is the outcome of wrong fundamentals of economies, finances and fiscal risks of this country. As I take responsibility, as a parliamentarian, I wonder if, perhaps we may not have understood our role or engaged in this process well enough at the beginning, and may not have held the Executive accountable. When the Cabinet Secretary for National Treasury, Mr. Rotich, appears before our committees, he tells us whatever he feels like telling us, but what are we holding him against and against what measures? This is very worrying for this House. I am glad that Sen. Wetangula has opened for us this opportunity to interrogate and ask the right questions, if we have not done so before. Madam Temporary Speaker, I do not want to repeat what Sen. Wetangula has already articulated for us very well with figures and the 70 per cent debt financing portfolio from one lender; the Chinese. He has also told us of the Kshs5.5 trillion debt, of which 60 to 70 per cent is from one lender, which is very unsustainable. I know that Sen. Linturi was trying to remember how much the domestic debt is; it is about Kshs2.6 billion. These numbers are affecting real people; they are affecting the real Wanjiku, who has --- The reason I say we have failed is because we have failed in our role of oversight and to legislate the right frameworks against which the budgeting process is made, monitored and reported upon. We have also failed our people when it comes to representation. The 45 million Kenyans cannot fit in this Chamber. That is why, by representation, they gave us their sovereign power – as per the first Article in our Constitution – to sit here on their behalf and ensure that we are the stewards of their resources and their dignity as a people; and that we hold the Government accountable as we account to them."
}