With all due respect to all the people on the street telling us a reject is under an option, like I have said and I have explained that you reject, you’re basically telling us, let’s go. Chris Lesgoux, Argentina, Lesgo.
The consequences for that will be more dire than what actually you’re seeing, what the conversation should be, because you have done an excellent job in painting the picture of what the challenges in the country are. So what would be the solution is what is being proposed on this table that I really look on our expenditure is what needs to be done. Are we really saying that we must spend that 3.9 that has been read out? And where is it that you can cut? You know, I see people try to reduce this conversation about 600 for innovations in the DP’s office and I don’t know, office of the First Lady and what not and so on. It will be right in the sense of as a show of goodwill and responsibility. But that’s not where the big ticket is, unfortunately, because you could remove all that, but you’re talking about take it or leave it, two or three billion Kenya shillings.
That’s not where the problem is. The optics, I have said it is important for the moral question to be answered on that. It’s how it looks. It’s, yes, exactly. That’s why I call it a moral question. But the real question to be answered is, where is it that this money that you’re spending are going to? You have removed debt, which you have said, unfortunately, much as we audit, even as we audit, we have to continue paying. You know, we can’t tell the people that you owe money that day. Oh, we know we’re supposed to clear by such and such a date, allow us to do an audit. And we’ve said as we do that audit, we will resolve what are our plausible options as of this point. A proper reluctant to the budget that has been laid before the National Assembly and say that where is it that you can do father cuts and perhaps either not spend or if they are savings to be made, then channel that to some of the problems that are being stifled. Take part of that money into paying, you know, we have a serious, apart from debt, we have a serious pending Bill challenge, which is part of the problems that are letting people out on the street. Government owes people in excess of close to 700 billion Kenya shillings. And this is services that Kenyans have rendered over the last six, seven or eight years as most of it actually, they borrowed from banks, they’ve been auctioned and things like that. Needs to be a conversation about what do we do on this issue of pending bills because it’s part of the bigger a complaint that you listen in or not, people are saying that it no longer make sense even to work with government if you want to be depressed and auction, try and take on a government contract. So everybody is trying to fight on the private sector, which unfortunately is a very limited. We should.
Really look at all these things.
But the expenditure side expenditure, that is where our focus should be, senator. It is not on the reject.
If you remember when I started the first question, I was very deliberate. I did not say that there are protests to reject the finance Bill. I said there are protests about our public finance management. Exactly you. So that’s what I hear. Yeah, it’s a conversation about our budget, how we spend, and then how we look for the money.
To spend, right? It starts with.
How we spend, how we’re planning to spend. And I, it’s the same thing that you’re saying. If we were to go back, if the people said reject finance Bill and you reject, you’re basically forcing the conversation into what are you planning to spend. It is bring back their conversation to what the president keeps saying, cutting their cloth by the court, by the, say that thing, cutting the.
Court code according to your cloth.
At the thing. Yeah, it is saying this is the actual size of your cloth. Now, can you cut the coats?
Remember.
What we have now is you have virakas that you’re adding and you’re saying that this is a new size of our coat. And the people are selling are telling you, no, this is not the size of the coat. Can you go back and cut your coat according to this size? That’s a conversation. Is the executive willing to listen to that conversation?
They don’t have a choice, unfortunately. Like I said, and I keep repeating this, that the silver lining in all this protest and the noise that has come out is that something has to move eventually for either to bring down the temperatures, to get the young people off the streets and to listen to each other and have a country once again that you are not making noise on each other. And all these things that are happening.
The only thing that I have said. I disagree, is that this campaign is anchored on rejecting the finance Bill. I have explained why that is not an option and why that cannot even be part of the solution. Remember, you have anchored this conversation around the challenges that we as a, facing as a society. And you’re saying part of the problem we as young people are out on the streets is that there are no jobs out there. Part of what the finance Bill does. And there is good demonstration about how that has been achieved from 2023 and will be achieved even more, is that you’ve got to incentivize people to come and invest locally. That’s why Eco Lev is being introduced on goods that are being manufactured externally, but nothing on things that are being manufactured locally because you’re trying, that’s what every sensible government does. That’s why when apple is under threat from Huawei, government of the US does whatever they do. They accuse them of all those things. They say because they protect their industry. That’s what we’re trying to do.
Therefore, let, allow me just to finish this point, Eric, that my reading is that are rejects is not the solution. The solution lies in a relook into our expenditure like you have rightfully okay, diagnose, because we cannot afford 3.9, which is what the National Assembly.
Indicators. Yeah, sure. If Parliament had voted no last week on Tuesday by majority, let’s even say that by some miracle, all members of Parliament present voted no. What would have.
Happened? The thing is you would actually just spiral into call UPS of the financial situations because remember, we are on an IMF and no.
What like what would it mean? Yeah, that the because an existing measure, the existing.
Basically what it means. So, okay, this is a thing that people need to understand. Yeah, why do you do a financial Bill each year? Yeah, you do a finance Bill because you’re trying to raise additional resources over and above what you already have. So you’re saying out of the tax measures that we have put in up to this point, it can only get us to 2.3,2.4 trillion. Which is what we’re going to achieve in this current financial year. But you have looked into your books and you’ve said that is still not commensurate to our needs. Remember, for the very first time in this present financial year, interest alone as a charge to debt has closed the one trillion shilling mug. Yes, it’s 1.009 for the very first time. Therefore, it tells you you’ve got to raise additional resources or cut somewhere. But Mark, you, even in cutting, and I have demonstrated this to you, Eric, these are beyond which you cannot cut without then constricting the economy to a point where it basically crashes. So it may, and I have said, yeah, if you cut and think about maybe reduction of counties or these are the places, there’s a level beyond which you cannot cut without, again, having. Efecto Neil Soluts Lucatrich OK.