{"count":1608389,"next":"http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/?format=json&page=152697","previous":"http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/?format=json&page=152695","results":[{"id":1545152,"url":"http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1545152/?format=json","text_counter":202,"type":"speech","speaker_name":"Sen. Onyonka","speaker_title":"","speaker":{"id":13592,"legal_name":"Onyonka Richard Momoima","slug":"onyonka-richard-momoima"},"content":"that we were borrowing when we would need a stopgap measure where we would borrow most probably 10 or five percent, or whatever the balance was, and then our budget would be balanced, and we would keep on moving as the economy was growing. Now, we borrow for big projects. We borrow for those projects where billions and billions, not Kenyan shillings, but billions and billions of American Dollars are borrowed. As a result, the money that was supposed to deal with the basic issues of our governance and existence, for instance, the health sector, education, agriculture, and the very basic sectors of our economy that are to deliver for the Kenyan public, is taken to do big-time projects because that is where we get our kickbacks. That is where we generate our revenue by arguing and saying, “No, you do not have to spend any money in farming. Look for something big that you can do. That is where the money is shared and that is where we really do not have to work very hard about this because even if we borrow, we will be able to pay this money anyway.” The problem is, soon, we are not going to be able to pay this money because we are at 68 percent. If by next year we are going to borrow another Kshs1.2 trillion like we did last year, the reality is soon we are going to be at 90 percent and then after that Kenya will just become like Thailand. We will not pay our debts back or pay salaries. The economy will just become an economy. It will become a supermarket. Essentially, what does a supermarket do? We become consumers. Then you do not have to worry about agricultural development and growth of the health sector. In fact, we, as a people, will begin thinking about whether to take our patients to Rwanda, which is offering their health facilities better than we are, or are we going to educate our children in Rwanda where the children are going to school achieving the grades they want. The educational sector is actually teaching mathematics, yet in our country, we are now saying we do not even have to allow kids to learn maths. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I would like to make a passionate plea to my colleagues in this House. The responsibility of fixing the mess we are in falls particularly on this House. Our country has a problem. We are not able to transform this country from a low- level, middle, low-income developing country into a mid-level, upper-level developing country. We are slowly going back to where we used to be, an underdeveloped country, a country that depends on its revenues so that it can govern itself on a daily basis. We are not going to be a country that invests on those sectors that are going to change the livelihoods of our people. We are not a country that is willing to tackle the issues that are important. We must make the Central Bank of Kenya to be independent. We must make the National Treasury to become advisory, so that its responsibility is to advise the President on what the economic issues are on a micro and macro basis. What do we do with the interest rates? What are we doing with investments and savings? Why is investment in Kenya becoming a problem? Why are companies moving out? Once companies move out of your country to go and invest somewhere else, then you have less of your people getting jobs and generating revenue for themselves, and you have less of the Government taking taxes, and you cannot continue taxing people indefinitely. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, many of my colleagues have brought wonderful issues in this place. In this House, I am so happy with what is being discussed. We must ensure The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Director, Hansard and AudioServices, Senate."},{"id":1545153,"url":"http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1545153/?format=json","text_counter":203,"type":"speech","speaker_name":"Sen. Onyonka","speaker_title":"","speaker":{"id":13592,"legal_name":"Onyonka Richard Momoima","slug":"onyonka-richard-momoima"},"content":"that the public debt management system is linked to the Integrated Financial Management Information System (IFMIS), as well as the own-source revenue systems. How can you have a financial platform in your country that deliberately has been cut into sections, bits and pieces because it makes it easier for those who are cutting deals and making money out of these state resources to do it without it looking seamless, yet in reality, we are not seamlessly managing our debt and revenue, instead, we are seamlessly managing the stealing of those revenues and the resources?"},{"id":1545154,"url":"http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1545154/?format=json","text_counter":204,"type":"scene","speaker_name":"","speaker_title":"","speaker":null,"content":"[The Deputy Speaker (Sen. Kathuri) left the Chair]"},{"id":1545155,"url":"http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1545155/?format=json","text_counter":205,"type":"scene","speaker_name":"","speaker_title":"","speaker":null,"content":"[The Temporary Speaker (Sen. Veronica Maina) in the Chair]"},{"id":1545156,"url":"http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1545156/?format=json","text_counter":206,"type":"speech","speaker_name":"Sen. Onyonka","speaker_title":"","speaker":{"id":13592,"legal_name":"Onyonka Richard Momoima","slug":"onyonka-richard-momoima"},"content":"Madam Temporary Speaker, I would like to insist that, yes, the automation must be done on even how the withdrawals of payments for the repayment of the debts that we have. As like Sen. Eddy Oketch has said, why do we not know what the debt stock in our republic is? You have the Auditor-General giving you a different figure and the Controller of Budget giving you a different figure. The other day, the Committee on Finance and Budget gave us a figure of Kshs12 trillion. I believe that our debt right now is at about Kshs14 trillion. Can we get the Committee on Finance and Budget, and this House to make sure that all those four institutions are called and we are able to get a forensic audit done so that, historically, we can even know how much money we borrowed, where did the money go, who spent that money, all the euro bonds we have gotten and how much money has been used to pay debt as we speak. It is very interesting that even when we are paying the debts, our debt never goes down. How can you pay Kshs800 billion of debt every year and yet the debt which you have of Kshs12 trillion never goes down? It means the debts are not being paid. It means money is being siphoned off from the international money market and we are told that this was collected so that we can go and pay our debts and yet in reality, what actually happens is that this money cannot be accounted for by any of our institutions that we have set up to guard what is happening in our country in terms of financial management. So, Madam Temporary Speaker, I would like to plead with the Committee and Members of this House, since I can see we are now slowly beginning to have a critical mass--- Madam Temporary Speaker, let us make sure that we know how much we are borrowing, where the money goes and what we can do. In the process of achieving this, let us make sure that whatever money that we borrow is utilized fairly and equitably amongst all our counties. Let us make sure that Kenyans begin to trust the Government. If we do not have an open government, even if the head of State sings from morning till evening, begging Kenyans to raise taxes for him, they will refuse. Why? Because they feel that we are not being open enough and we are not telling them the truth as to what is happening to their money and the money that is borrowed for the development for our country. The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Director, Hansard and AudioServices, Senate."},{"id":1545157,"url":"http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1545157/?format=json","text_counter":207,"type":"speech","speaker_name":"Sen. Onyonka","speaker_title":"","speaker":{"id":13592,"legal_name":"Onyonka Richard Momoima","slug":"onyonka-richard-momoima"},"content":"Madam Temporary Speaker, I would like to comment on another issue. I have watched what is happening in our country and I have seen this for quite a long time. The reason is I have been around for a while. Unless we change the way we behave, change the strategies that we use and change the social-political economic behaviour as leadership, we are taking our country in the wrong direction. Why do I say so? We have a country and you expect what runs the economy of this country is the private sector. The private sector - the small businesses, the big businesses, the mix between MDGs and when you put all these groups together, that is the engine that is supposed to drive our economy. However, right now in Kenya, our economy is being driven by the national Government. That is why everybody wants business in Government and do deals in Government. That is why in every transaction you see, everybody wants to own a piece of land owned by the Government. Every single transaction we are conducting today is actually about the Government. How I plead with my colleagues here that we change that to the point where we agree that the private sector is going to be the driver and the engine that is going to change the country to the direction it is going, so that we have an economy that grows, the cake becomes bigger, we are responsible for how we use our donor funds, all the money that we borrow and how we use the taxes that we collect from Kenyans. Madam Temporary Speaker, my honest observation and feeling is that we are failing on all those gaps. Therefore, I would like to say that let us follow up on what works and make sure that our GDP ratio to debt and to borrowing should come down to 50-50 per cent. Let us also make sure that when we borrow funds, we borrow externally because money is cheaper at the international money market. We can go 70-30 per cent as we have always been. I heard Sen. (Dr.) Oburu Odinga mention, and it is true because of the institutional memory, he was in the National Treasury. There was a time when the Kenyan Government borrowed any money, 30 percent of that money would be grants and we paid 70 percent. The loans were concessional, long-term and were very soft. That is how you change and develop various sectors. Finally, there has been this argument historically, which started about 10 years ago, that all the money we get, whether we borrow it internationally or domestically, we make sure that we use it for mega-projects; where you want to spend Kshs500 billion or Kshs150 billion. Kenya just needs us to fix the health sector, the education sector and make sure that we fix the basic roads, as well as make sure that there is an ease to do business; make sure that the Kenyan public appreciates that our education is running well and that we are funding university students well. Why can we not give free education to our poor people in this country? Why, Madam Temporary Speaker? Kibaki did it. He was using Kshs72 billion to take primary, secondary and university students for free education. Right now, the Ministry of Education is given Kshs640 billion and we cannot give our children free education and yet, we borrow this money. We are spending Kshs640 billion on the education sector, and yet, we are not able to give free education to our students. You only get to hear all these things about who prints book or where the money is going. The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Director, Hansard and AudioServices, Senate."},{"id":1545158,"url":"http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1545158/?format=json","text_counter":208,"type":"speech","speaker_name":"Sen. Onyonka","speaker_title":"","speaker":{"id":13592,"legal_name":"Onyonka Richard Momoima","slug":"onyonka-richard-momoima"},"content":"For us to fix our country, yes, this House can come up with recommendations but unless we have structures and institutions that are going to be the defence mechanism we use to deter our bad behaviour, we will not go anywhere. Why? Sen. Omtatah, it has been nearly a week that we have not seen a scandal but you will notice every single time in our Republic, there is scandal after scandal after scandal about public money. Madam Temporary Speaker, can we stop the abuse, misuse and wastage of public funds, so that we serve the Kenyan public with the dignity they deserve and so that we can leave a country that is better than we found it. My worry is, many of us may not see the contradiction of where we are. We are a country that has got a budget that can run between six to seven countries within the Eastern and Central African region. However, if you take the population we have of 50 million, the population of the six or seven countries I am mentioning is 300 million. How come we are not able to use the resources that we have to fix the mess we are in? That is why I keep saying, we do not need to borrow. The money we have is enough. Why is the money not enough? We keep on having ghost workers and we employ teachers, we do not know who owns them."},{"id":1545159,"url":"http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1545159/?format=json","text_counter":209,"type":"speech","speaker_name":"Sen. Veronica Maina","speaker_title":"The Temporary Speaker","speaker":null,"content":" Time is up, Senator. Okay, half a minute, you finished the sentence."},{"id":1545160,"url":"http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1545160/?format=json","text_counter":210,"type":"speech","speaker_name":"Sen. Onyonka","speaker_title":"","speaker":{"id":13592,"legal_name":"Onyonka Richard Momoima","slug":"onyonka-richard-momoima"},"content":"Thank you, Madam Temporary Speaker. I just wanted to say that let us make sure there we have an open, transparent government, where we are accountable to each other, where we manage the resources of our country with prudence and respect and Kenyans will be always happy that we were in this House. I hope that this House, and the Committee on Finance and Budget will stand up for the Kenyans. Madam Temporary Speaker, with those remarks, I second the Motion."},{"id":1545161,"url":"http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1545161/?format=json","text_counter":211,"type":"speech","speaker_name":"Sen. Veronica Maina","speaker_title":"The Temporary Speaker","speaker":null,"content":" Thank you, Senator. Sen. Okoiti Andrew Omtatah, Busia County."}]}