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{
    "id": 977404,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/977404/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 162,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Farhiya",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13179,
        "legal_name": "Farhiya Ali Haji",
        "slug": "farhiya-ali-haji"
    },
    "content": "As we all know, the Government revenue keeps on reducing. There is a Bill by Sen. (Dr.) Zani that seeks to address revenue collection that has not been passed by the National Assembly. Revenue collection of the counties must be increased to reduce their overreliance on the national Government. The other issue that I want to bring to the attention of Senators is that our production has been reducing. In the FY 2016/2017, our share of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) within the East African Community (EAC) was US$42 but it has reduced to US$39 over the past five years. The other issue is the per capita income of this country. Kenya’s per capita income in 2010 was US$1,200, while that of Zambia, Ghana, and Nigeria was US$1,700, US$1,800 and US$2,400 respectively. The other issue I would like to bring to the attention of the House is the fiscal deficit of this country. In the BPS of 2016, we had projected that in the FY 2018/2019, the deficit would be 4 per cent only. As we speak, we have been reviewing. In 2017 we said it was going to rise to 5 per cent, 2018, 6 per cent, 2019, 6.3 per cent and now we are projecting it to go to 7.7 per cent. That brings the question of our reliability on the data and then our focus is hampered. This means that we might lose visibility in terms of our data and other deficit that we have in this country. Madam Temporary Speaker, in terms of employment, we had a target of creating employment of one million jobs annually but we have been able to only create 800. Out of that, 83 per cent was through the informal sector. I apologize, I am giving a lot of statistics but I think it is important for you to understand some of these things. In terms of our remittances, it is only foreign exchange earnings that have been increasing. We have not been taking care of that as well by providing incentives and making life easier for those people who stay here for education. This is because Kenyan education is perceived to be at a higher level, even by the United Nations (UN). I know someone who was working with the UN in Kenya and he has subsequently moved to Pakistan, but his family is still here. We need to take care of such people because they bring in foreign exchange. Madam Temporary Speaker, the other issue is around my pet topic; according to the Maputo Declaration, 25 per cent needs to be provided to the health and agriculture budgets. If I take 25 per cent of this year’s budget of Kshs2.7 trillion, that gives us Kshs683 billion. What we are giving counties right now is only Kshs316 billion---."
}