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{
    "id": 877533,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/877533/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 445,
    "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": "security. For example, the previous policy on food security was to come up with irrigated agriculture. We centred and based our hopes on the so-called Galana Kulalu Irrigation Development Project, which has turned out to be a fraud on the people of Kenya and the National Treasury has made no mention of the same. If you look at this BPS on food security and how the Government plans to actualise food security, there is irrigation, but no mentioning of 10,000 acres in Mwea to be irrigated for rice production and other interventions. They have forgotten about the Galana Kulalu Irrigation Development Project which has sunk over Kshs7 billion and the National Treasury has no courtesy of mentioning that to us. What about the dams that we are talking about which are riddled with corruption and were meant to provide food security for this country? That was one of the main agenda of building those dams. There is no mention of the same. Parliament must also share in this blame. As the Leader of the Minority Party, I want to call upon the entire leadership of Parliament that we must now put more pressure on our departmental committees to change tack and focus more on monitoring and evaluation of implementation of projects. Why would we wait for some other agencies to tell us that Kshs6.3 billion was paid to some Italian who has taken off with our money, yet these dams are in our budget? The amounts are in the budget and no committee has mentioned that to this House. There is no report from the Departmental Committee on Environment and Natural Resources or the Departmental Committee on Agriculture and Livestock to tell us that Galana Development Irrigation Project has failed. Who will help this country if this House cannot come up with some of these reports? We may need to refocus our resources as a House to this and insist in committees tabling for discussing quarterly; or half yearly status reports on the implementation of projects. As I have stated above, we develop policies but do not bother to monitor the implementation, yet sustainability of policy proposals is an integral part of development. For example, the digital literacy is an example of such a failed policy. We started with laptops, then we went to tablets, now we are talking about computer labs, yet we know very well that Members of Parliament had even made a recommendation that we should construct computer labs and adopted it, yet no follow up, hence we are where we are. We approve resources for implementation of programmes and so we have vested powers to call for forensic audit early enough to take restorative measures, otherwise, we will be lamenting like any other Kenyan who has no responsibility and powers. As the Leader of the Minority Party, I want to ask again that the relevant committee should critically call to account among others, digital literacy programme, food security policy especially expenditure on irrigation and construction of dams, the leasing of medical equipment, the rural electrification programmes, just to mention but a few. On the public debt, allow me to say the following: We need to learn from the experience of Greece. Greece had a National Treasury. Probably they also had a Budget Committee and IMF was there to police it. The parameters and figures that were being flashed around were looking very good, but we all know what happened to it. The net present value of debts as a percentage of revenue is 300. That is what is allowable. That is overstretching. When IMF and World Bank tell you that the maximum is 300, it is maximum beyond which you are in trouble. In 2018, on debt services, we were already at 299.6 so we only have 0.4 left. Hon. Kimani Ichung’wah mentioned this without mentioning the figure – which we have overshot. The debt service to revenue ratio threshold is 30 per cent but in 2018, we were at 43 per cent and we project to be at 48 per cent in 2019. 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."
}