Gatundu South Member of Parliament, Moses Kuria, has lifted a lid on how lawmakers were regularly summoned to State House and given goodies to turn a blind eye on issues.
While appearing on Citizen TV's Newsnight on Tuesday, September 7, the outspoken lawmaker noted that the meetings would coincide with Parliamentary debates on the country's annual budget.
He further noted that during the meetings, they would received goodies and ordered to pass the budget as it was.
Kuria also explained that the goodies they received were responsible for the country's ballooning foreign debt.
"Since 2014 until last year when I was unceremoniously kicked out, I was a member of the budget committee, so I was privy to a lot of things that were happening in this country since 2014. I know that Kenyans would have expected me to play an oversight role that would have prevented those things from happening."
"What used to happen is that every year before we pass the budget, we would be called to state house, both members of Jubilee and NASA (National Super Alliance) led by ODM chair, John Mbadi, and we would be given goodies for our constituencies and we would be told 'shut up and go and pass everything the way it is," stated Kuria.
Kuria was defending a startling statement he made in 2019 arguing that the government as well as Parliament had continuously lied to Kenyans about the debt for seven years.
He also pointed out that he chose to make the explosive claims to clear his conscience in the eyes of Kenyan taxpayers.
”We have lied to Kenyans and second thing is we have failed in our oversight responsibility. Since 2014, we have sold to Kenyans this romantic story that all is well because we believed in respecting the Executive and also since most of us are members of the ruling party."
“The reason we are in this hole is because as Parliament, we could have said No but we said Yes. So on behalf of Parliament, I want to offer my unqualified apology to the people of this nation since as the people they trusted on the ballot we have failed them by selling them lies that everything is well," claimed Kuria at the time.
As of July 2021, Kenya's total debt had crossed Ksh7.7 trillion with estimations from the Central Bank of Kenya as well as the National Treasury indicating that the country had acquired Ksh1 trillion in a period of 12 months.
From the figure, the country's external debt crossed Ksh4 trillion by June 2021, while domestic debt stood at Ksh3.7 trillion.
