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"id": 841922,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/841922/?format=api",
"text_counter": 304,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Suba South, ODM",
"speaker_title": "Hon. John Mbadi",
"speaker": {
"id": 110,
"legal_name": "John Mbadi Ng'ong'o",
"slug": "john-mbadi"
},
"content": "as a country, we are going to repay debts at Kshs870 billion. Salaries are estimated in this country to consume about Kshs650 billion. If you add that to the debt repayment, you are already hitting close to Kshs1.5 trillion. If you transfer Kshs314 billion to our 47 counties, then in essence, you are spending above Kshs1.8 trillion on debt repayment, paying salaries and transfers to the counties. If the project was Kshs1.9 trillion, simple arithmetic would put it that we have less than Kshs100 million to spend on other development matters. If you then transfer the NG-CDF at the rate of about Kshs35 billion, then you would see that we are already consuming the entire ordinary revenue that we collect as a country. That, therefore, means that we have no money for development. The National Treasury is admitting late in the day that we have some obligations with other development partners. We have obligation even by people who loaned us money through Eurobonds and syndicated loans. These obligations would put at risk our financial integrity. If it does that then, two things are likely to happen. One, you may lose out in getting any money from the development partners or get any loan out there. Two, even if you were to get it, you can get it at a high cost hence putting pressure on us again. If you are running a company with such predicaments, you would have the options of either injecting more capital to it to help you to move or you sell it altogether. I do not know how many of us are ready to sell Kenya and realise proceeds and we divide probably the dividends and look for somewhere else to live. It, therefore, means that we must cut on our budget. We must cut the cloth to fit our sizes, hence the need to take some austerity measures. As a party, we pronounced ourselves that we are going to ask the country to take real austerity measures. Let me mention some of the deductions. One, there are proposed amendments by the Committee to what the National Treasury had recommended. It is not that we have not touched the NG-CDF. We are putting the NG-CDF to the statutory provision of 2.5 per cent of the Kshs1.33 trillion, which brings it to Kshs33.3 billion. On the Affirmative Action Fund for the Woman Representatives, this was a disaster. I do not know where the National Treasury got the idea of doing away with that Fund altogether. The provision in the last financial year was Kshs2 billion. We raised the Fund to Kshs2.3 billion in this financial year. We are now putting it at Kshs2.1 billion. My calculation is that it has been reduced by Kshs200 billion. This means that we have raised what was provided for in the last financial year by Kshs100 million. On the parliamentary budget, this needs to be clear because I know it is likely to be picked. The National Treasury wanted to reduce the parliamentary budget by close to 40 per cent for reasons we do not know. Therefore, like all Government departments except the Judiciary, we have reduced operations and maintenance by 16 per cent. We were very careful with Parliament. Just like the Executive is not touching emoluments, because you cannot touch salaries, we are also saying that Parliament should not touch emoluments. That is what we have done. There is nothing that we have done which is different from what is done for the Executive. I do not think there is anything to be ashamed of here. What we have done is just to rationalise, cut across the board operations and maintenance for both the Executive and the Legislature, but on personal emoluments, cushion it for all the departments. Hon. Speaker, if you allow me one minute, I will say two things. One, we have also reduced Kshs600 million from the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology on infrastructure because this money is not being distributed fairly. But we have left it at Kshs1.5 billion to think about it in future. 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."
}