HTTP 200 OK
Allow: GET, PUT, PATCH, DELETE, HEAD, OPTIONS
Content-Type: application/json
Vary: Accept
{
"id": 941698,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/941698/?format=api",
"text_counter": 614,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Sen. Farhiya",
"speaker_title": "",
"speaker": {
"id": 13179,
"legal_name": "Farhiya Ali Haji",
"slug": "farhiya-ali-haji"
},
"content": "Thank you, Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir. From the outset, I want to state that I support the amendment of these Regulations with the following reasons: We are in a catch 22 situation where I am damned if I do, and damned if I do not. So, we are already in a hole. This House has two options; to allow the country to sink into a hole now or pass these Regulations, extend the ceiling and let us have some money to restructure the expensive debt and stop internal borrowing. The issue of internal borrowing has been touched by many Senators while contributing, but I want to shed more light from the impact that it has. You have noticed that when the interest rates were capped, the banks stopped lending to small-scale entrepreneurs. However, that did not stop the banks from reporting very high profits, quarter in, quarter out. Do you know why? It is because they were busy lending to the Government, while the small entrepreneur, who would have created jobs and profits, from where the Government would have gotten its taxes from and grown the economy, were denied cash flow because the Government was borrowing from the economy. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, if the new Cabinet Secretary finds himself in a catch 22 situation, where he found a problem--- In my native language, we say that the warlords kill the people whom they found in the village. They never look for those who left. We have a Cabinet Secretary who found a mess, but now that he is there, what can he do about it? If he is suggesting that we clear the expensive loan and get concessional loans that are cheaper for this country, I support him. Let us allow people to think beyond the box and ensure that we get money to fix the problem that they have. Let me give an example. If you borrowed money and cleared an old debt, leaving you with a concessional loan, literally, your loan has not increased. You have just taken one loan, and at the end of the day, your costs are lower. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I sit in the Committee on Finance and Budget and I am sure that most of my colleagues are wondering, given my stand on issues, why I am supporting this amendment to the Regulations. It is because, for our economy to grow, we need businesses to flow to the local entrepreneur. Unless the Government stops borrowing from the local market--- If we do not pass this amendment to the Regulations, the Government will continue borrowing from the local market, which means that the small investors will be denied cash. We are already in a hole and we need to get out of it. What is the best way to do so? The core problem of this country is in a dragon and animal called corruption. Let me give an example of the impact of corruption. We are being told that we have Kshs6 trillion debt. This is not confirmed, but there is also discussion that every year this country loses a third of its budget through corruption. The current Budget for the"
}