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{
    "id": 878728,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/878728/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 485,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Nandi Hills, JP",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Alfred Keter",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 2514,
        "legal_name": "Alfred Kiptoo Keter",
        "slug": "alfred-kiptoo-keter"
    },
    "content": " Thank you, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker. At the outset, listening to most of the contributions by Members from yesterday, I think we are living a lie in terms of what we were expecting from the BPS. This is a fundamental issue that touches on one of our biggest role as MPs, the budget-making process. I believe we should add our input or improve by making contributions which will change the living standards of our people. It is rather unfortunate that every time we sit in this Parliament, we hear stories about coming up with policies that are not realistic in terms of the challenges Kenyans are facing. When you see the estimation of revenue collection that the National Treasury is expecting every year, it has a big disconnect from the reality. They talk of huge figures of almost Kshs2 trillion. However, the real figures we get are below Kshs1.5 trillion or lower at times. Last year, we passed some laws for Kenyans to pay more taxes in fuel costs. Then, after six or seven months down the line, there is no improvement in terms of revenue collection. This is because the same taxation we did on fuel cost is not impacting positively on our economy. I have heard comments from MPs that there are issues to do with a lot of foreign debt. We have borrowed so much. It is the wastages and leakages that we get as a result of borrowing and the mis-priorities. We do not prioritise in terms of what we invest. I remember in the 11th Parliament, I talked about the railway. I believe in the Standard Gauge Railway (SGR), but I was against the costing. There is an amount of money that you need to use in any project. Kenya is a country where every cost, so long as it is about public resources, is very expensive. I have heard of dams where Government is planning to use millions of dollars. A whopping Kshs25 billion is used to construct a dam. Private individuals have constructed dams five or ten times less the cost we are incurring. It is sad that every time we use public resources, everything becomes very expensive. There are so many stalled projects. The reason is that people want to launch new projects because they benefit from kickbacks. People want to launch new projects because they want to change their dreams every year. We must believe in what we believe in this year. We have Vision 2030 which nobody knows how it is being implemented. If we were to do an audit in terms of how much we have achieved as a country with Vision 2030, it would be sad to realise that we are only 11 years to get to 2030. Most of the stalled projects have been the challenge that we have been having with the resources. We must agree and live a reality that this country is broke. We must start believing in that because we are living a lie. So far, we have managed to receive Kshs31 million for the National Government Constituencies Development Fund out of over Kshs100 million. It is less than 30 per cent. We do not know what is happening. Most county governments have received less than that amount. I heard the Leader of the Majority Party speaking about the pending bills where huge corruption cases are coming up because of them. Some are genuine cases, which is a factor contributing a lot to the issue of circulation of resources or the cash flow that we are experiencing at the moment. It is affecting directly the SMEs. Many small-scale enterprises are collapsing because of resources. Bankers are auctioning contractors. Factories are closing down. Many Kenyans are losing jobs because factories cannot proceed with the type of environment that we are in. We are in an economy where everybody is feeling it, whether the rich, the middle class and the poor. The farmers are complaining left, right and centre. Every sector in farming is collapsing. That is why I want to support my colleagues who have said there is a big disconnect between what is in"
}