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{
    "id": 975567,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/975567/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 335,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Kiminini, FORD-K",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. (Dr.) Chris Wamalwa",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 1889,
        "legal_name": "Chrisantus Wamalwa Wakhungu",
        "slug": "chrisantus-wamalwa-wakhungu"
    },
    "content": "youth starting businesses. We have an affirmative action of 30 per cent government goods and services that must be supplied by youths and women. They are doing the supplies; they have borrowed the money from commercial banks but the county and national Governments are not paying. Their businesses will collapse. They are being auctioned. So, the issue of pending bills is an extraordinary problem that needs an extraordinary solution. I support my other colleagues who had said that we need a line element. Maybe the Government needs to give a provision for the pending bills, so that they can be cleared once and for all. Some of us refused the issue of capping interest rates on the Floor of this House, but His Excellency the President brought it back through the backdoor via Article 115 of the Constitution. How I wish the BBI could address this, so that Article 115 of the Constitution is used sparingly. We are messing up. When the President rejects assenting to the Bill and brings back the recommendations, where will we get the two-thirds majority to refuse it? Many things are being sneaked in here through the backdoor. We have talked of conflict of interest. It is high time we looked each other in the eye and see who is abusing this. If the price of a commodity goes down, the law of demand and supply dictates that the amount of the quantity being demanded will be higher because many people will afford it. Demand must be accompanied by affordability. In this case, when the interest capping was put at a lower rate, the SMEs could not access credit. There was a conspiracy. This is where the Central Bank of Kenya comes in, in terms of ethical practice. Banks conspired not to give money to SMEs. When the President rejected to assent to the interest rate capping law, we were told to allow this, so that we can increase accessibility of credit to SMEs. When this was done, SMEs still could not access credit. The only solution is to look at what Kimunya proposed. We must borrow the good ideas of the Kibaki regime. I salute the Kibaki regime. We did not hear much about corruption. When it comes to borrowing, the rule of the thumb has always been that it should not exceed 50 per cent of the GDP, particularly in a developing economy. But right now, what is the percentage of borrowing in relation to our GDP? We are almost at 70 per cent which is very dangerous. We cannot sustain the public debt. When a young Kenyan is born, there is a debt on his head. Where will we go? Those are the big questions we should answer. Recently, we increased the debt ceiling from Kshs6 trillion to Kshs9 trillion. The understanding was that they will restructure the debt, so that some of the loans that the Government had engaged in, particularly when it comes to commercial ones, would be redistributed in the sense that we go for concessional loans which are cheaper. Looking at the policy, you find that the credit rate is still going up. The amount that has been borrowed is increasing. Those are the questions we are asking. Why are we not seeing the supposed expectations? Those are the difficult questions. We must come together as a team. Those are important matters. The Government promised to go for concessional loans. I am now hearing the Budget and Appropriations Committee talking of semi-concessional and semi-commercial. Those are things that I have never heard of. I used to be in the Budget and Appropriations Committee, but I moved out. The Government is taking too long. Mr. Ukur Yatani is starting on a wrong note. First, there is the issue of the NG-CDF Board. Mr. Mbuno has been acting forever. You cannot just bring somebody different and yet you have the discretion to appoint someone who was among the top three. Mr. Mbuno should come back as the CEO of the NG-CDF Board. We will not accept any other name. 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."
}