Treasury Cabinet Secretary Njuguna Ndungu's speech at the Kenyatta International Convention Centre (KICC) was on Wednesday, January 11, cut short after a power blackout.
The CS, who was addressing the public forum, had delved deep into his speech for ten minutes before the incident occurred.
This brought all proceedings of the high-level sitting to a standstill.
The meeting is part of a three-day public hearing on the proposed 2023/2024 Financial year and medium-term period budget.
In particular, the event's theme focused on the macro-outlook, health and education sector.
During the meeting, Kiharu Member of Parliament Ndindi Nyoro affirmed that debt borrowing would only benefit the country if it was pushed into investment.
In addition, he urged political leaders to refrain from referencing countries with large external debt, pointing out that there are various factors to consider before taking notes from them.
"Debt is not entirely bad but we cannot continue perpetuating borrowing by referencing countries that borrow and are doing well.
"We can no longer continue borrowing money to put in recurrence, it should go into investment," Nyoro stated.
On the second day of the hearing, the public will be required to submit their proposals on energy, justice and commercial affairs.
The final day of the hearing will involve the public submitting proposals on the environment, public administration and social protection.
This will be done in accordance with Article 201 (a) of the Constitution and Section 36 of the Public Finance Management Act 2012, which requires public participation in the budget-making process.
"There shall be openness and accountability, including public participation in financial matters," read part of Article 201 of the Constitution which deals with principles of public finance.
"The Cabinet Secretary shall by regulations, prescribe procedures specifying how, when and where members of the public shall participate in the budget process at the national level," read part of the Public Finance Management Act 2012.
