Entry Instance

HTTP 200 OK
Allow: GET, PUT, PATCH, DELETE, HEAD, OPTIONS
Content-Type: application/json
Vary: Accept

{
    "id": 703374,
    "url": "http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/703374/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 201,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "November, 2 2016 SENATE DEBATES 34 Sen. Hassan",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "Thank you, Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, for this opportunity. First and foremost, I want to appreciate the characteristic wisdom of my brother, for having sought to cure a lacuna. As we tend to improve on devolution, amendments would arise from time to time that tend to plug in some of the deficits in law. This Bill seeks to plug in the deficit in law based on practical experience. This Bill states that no discretion in this country must be absolute, especially if it is being exercised after an extremely elaborate process of fact-finding. How is absolute discretion exercised when a process has recommended to the contrary? Through this Bill, we are trying to cure the politicization of this process. We all had focused our energy on the President on whether or not it will be practical for him to dissolve Makueni County and face a by-election. Had we thought at that point in time that there was a probability of the party or the coalition that has Makueni County win or lose the election, then a suspension would have been recommended. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, how can we defeat the collective wisdom of five or six panelists sitting in a commission and have recommended that they went to Makueni County, interrogated witnesses and everybody else that they should have interrogated and returned a verdict of suspension and then we torpedo the same suspension? The only people who can torpedo that type of a process can only be a House that is representative in the sovereign expression of the will of the people, and that can only be the Senate. Therefore, we lost an extraordinary opportunity. The President must also be cost- effective. If he had already pre-determined what he would do in terms of using his discretion not to suspend Makueni County, then, he should not, in the first place, have appointed that Commission. It was a total waste of time and a process that subjected the people of Makueni to unnecessary scrutiny. We, who have a specific focus in Makueni County - I have twin brothers there and we have a base as a party - are aware that the problems of Makueni County are still alive and real. Therefore, the President missed an extraordinary opportunity to help the people of Makueni County settle those problems once and for all, either through an election or whatever other process that this Senate would have determined. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, with the level of corruption in this country, it is important that representative Houses of this nature and any other public official must now lower the threshold. We now have one scandal after another. An amount of Kshs5 billion has become pocket change. People are stealing hundreds of millions of shillings through audacious transfers into accounts. For example, in the case of the Youth Fund, somebody audaciously transferred over Kshs100 million. There is corruption that is so reckless and shameless. During President Moi’s time, the infrastructure that the Ministry of Finance and other collaborators put to steal the Goldenberg billions was so elaborate that you could realise that there was a little bit of discipline even in their theft. Today, we have theft that is reckless, audacious and shameless. Whichever President or Senate that does not impeach on mere allegations must lower the threshold fundamentally, because this high threshold is what has made people escape the wheels of justice. Look at the number of people going to court to stop processes. In retrospect, the Senate might have erred in setting such a high threshold; these things are very casual. There was a standoff in Makueni because the county assembly wanted to loot the public treasury. We also know of certain other allegations The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposes only. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor, Senate"
}