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{
    "id": 841586,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/841586/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 502,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Halake",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13184,
        "legal_name": "Abshiro Soka Halake",
        "slug": "abshiro-soka-halake"
    },
    "content": "Those of us who are leaders, what are we presiding over? We are talking about the Big Four. Who is the Big Four for? Is it only for us or the President‟s legacy when everyone else has been flattened out? These are questions and food for thought. I recently read a report about the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank pointing out to lack of capacity or accountability from the Treasury Debt Management Office. I do not believe Kenyans lack capacity. I believe many of these things are by design so that people may find loopholes within our systems and processes to steal. People may also find loopholes within our processes of decision-making processes not to be accountable to the electorate. Who is supposed to check that when we are the direct representatives of our electorate? Therefore, issues of debt, fuel levy, and revenues that are never accurate are all, in my humble submission, by design. I believe this country has able people that could do many things. We, as leaders, need to look at ourselves in the mirror and determine what our roles are in this and how we have contributed to this. What have I not done? Have I been a bystander? Under whose watch did this country go to the dogs? When did we become an insolvent country? We talk about our country being a middle-income earner. What middle-income country cannot take care of its basic needs? The other day, we saw what happened in Pumwani Maternity Hospital. The same situation is obtaining everywhere in this country. I think that the rebasing of our country to a middle-income status was a process of ensuring that we can borrow more to steal more. I do not want to sound like a pessimist, but everything points to a situation in which we have colluded either by design or omission. We have colluded to defraud the people that brought us to this House. It is about time and, I congratulate the few voices that continue to speak up and ensure that we are not just bystanders and are saying something even if it may not result in significant outcomes. Madam Temporary Speaker, this morning, I was at an ICT conference, and I realized that a lot of the funds that have been put aside for development like the Universal Service Fund and the Equalization Fund are about to disappear. The counties have no money anymore under the guise of “The country is broke.” A few days ago, I listened to the Majority Leader of this House saying that we are in a healthy financial situation and that even the United States of America (USA) borrows more than us. Forgive me but, does Kenya look like the USA to anybody? We cannot compare apples to oranges just because we think that the citizens may not understand that America and Kenya--- That is insulting our intelligence and it should stop. We have to be responsible leaders, speak the truth, and be accountable to the people that brought us to this House."
}