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{
    "id": 895044,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/895044/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 251,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Orengo",
    "speaker_title": "The Senate Minority Leader",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 129,
        "legal_name": "Aggrey James Orengo",
        "slug": "james-orengo"
    },
    "content": "There are other areas that the President spoke about at length and I may not have time to go through them all. He spent a lot of time telling us about the state of the nation. He talked of security, economy and other sectors. The image of what is happening in the country was painted in a very positive manner and I want to take issue with the economy. Whereas he did show that there is growth at the rate of 6.1 per cent and that the economy is expected to grow at a higher rate in the coming years, most people do not agree with that. Many people in the country, be it farmers, business people or transport operators, cannot say that the economy is growing at the rate of 6.1 per cent. Most of them take that to be mere statistics. The growth may be artificial or artificial measure of growth. That picture does not exist in reality if you talk to people in the villages or those in the streets of Nairobi and Mombasa. Many people are feeling a lot of pain and that needs to be addressed. The best measure of an economy that is growing is the feel good factor and the people realising the fruits of that growth. Dictatorship system of government gives similar figures of growth and so on but the question is; who is benefiting from that growth? It is important for us to ask that question and also use other indicators so as to know the state of affairs of our economy in relation to the common man in the village or in the streets. From where I stand, the picture is a little gloomier than what the President painted and we need to look into that issue together. Wole Soyinka once talked of President Shagari, who was a very good man; he was polite and civil, and used to talk about Nigeria in laudatory terms. Wole Soyinka said that President Shagari was talking about Nigeria, but the problem was that it seemed as if President Shagari was not living in Nigeria because he was painting a different picture from what was happening in Nigeria. That is not to say that the situation in Kenya is similar to that of Nigeria at that time. I am just pointing out that the state of the economy may look what it is in the statistics books. However, when you go down to the common people, that picture does The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor, Senate."
}