HTTP 200 OK
Allow: GET, PUT, PATCH, DELETE, HEAD, OPTIONS
Content-Type: application/json
Vary: Accept
{
"id": 842886,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/842886/?format=api",
"text_counter": 128,
"type": "other",
"speaker_name": "",
"speaker_title": "",
"speaker": null,
"content": "and wells to give at least a semblance of fresh and clean water to families are not working because there is no money to pay for them. Mr. Speaker, Sir, sometimes I think we come too hard on the managers of devolved units without looking at the bigger picture. This House should engineer the change of law, so that even the little money that counties collect should not be remitted and held at the national Treasury. This will enable counties to at least move. Counties like Nairobi City, Uasin Gishu, Nakuru, Mombasa and Kiambu, left on their own, can collect enough revenue and run their affairs subject to the strict rules of accountability and probity. However, this money that is collected in the counties and sent to Nairobi cannot go back. It is joining into the already fathomless pit that exists at the National Treasury. Today, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has sent us a red card that we are ineligible to borrow from them and if we cannot borrow from the IMF, where else can we borrow? It is the lender of last resort anywhere in the world. Where you cannot get a loan from China, Germany, the UK, from wherever, the IMF will walk in to bail you out. They have already said we are ineligible to access their loans. This country is in serious problems and that is why we have been saying, instead of standing across the aisle pointing and shouting at each other, the President of this country needs to call for a serious national conversation on how to manage the affairs of this country. Is devolution too heavy for this country? Do we have too many elected people in this country? Do we have too many layers of Government in this country? How do you explain? When you look at the Transition Section of the Constitution, it is very clear that the Provincial Government shall in five years be reformed and be aligned to devolution. Today, from the same Exchequer, we are paying the Governor, the County Commissioner, the Sub-county Commissioner, somebody from the national Government, the Water Administrator, the District Officer (DO), the chief and the village administrator. We are paying everybody up to the lowest level at two parallel systems and it is the same money. It is the tax that we pay that is paying the governor and the County Commissioner. You go to the counties, county commissioners are there sitting like beggars, there is no money there for them. They are just sitting, waiting for salaries and harassing governors every day, saying: “I need fuel, I need this, I need that.” We cannot run a country like this. Kenya is a much more respected country and we are rapidly sliding into a banana republic; a country where we are not able, in a determinate manner, to plan and stick to plans. That is how countries go into an abyss. It will be unfortunate if this country is not able to manage its public debt. Today, we owe China so much money that China can decide to foreclose on our country. A sum of 72 per cent of our public debt is owed to China. It should not be lost to Members that China foreclosed Sri Lanka and took their port and airport and they are running them until they recover their debt. Zambia is under the hammer, they have not taken it yet but they have issued foreclosure notice. We are in the picture and in the line of fire for this because of reckless borrowing. The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposes only. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor, Senate."
}