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{
"id": 1408971,
"url": "http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1408971/?format=api",
"text_counter": 99,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Ugunja, ODM",
"speaker_title": "Hon. Opiyo Wandayi",
"speaker": null,
"content": " Thank you very much, Hon. Speaker. From the outset, I will go straight to the point and declare that I support the Motion. I thank Hon. Jack Wamboka, the initiator of the Motion, most profusely. Hon. Jack Wamboka, history will be very kind to you. In the fullness of time, you will for sure have something when the history of this Parliament or this country is written. If not a paragraph or a sentence, you will have at least a footnote for what you have done for the country today. Let me say that I am more than convinced that the Cabinet Secretary, Hon. Mithika Linturi, has fallen short of the requirements of the Constitution as a holder of a public office. That is after listening keenly to the submission by Hon. Wamboka and having scrutinised into detail the documents, the annexures and so on and so forth that have been presented. Indeed, the Hon. Jack Wamboka has clearly drawn a linkage between the conduct of Hon. Mithika Linturi and the grounds outlined under Article 152(4)(a). In Article 152(6) states the three grounds upon which a Cabinet Secretary may be subjected to a Motion such as this one. I will not belabour the point. Let me start by saying that the conduct of the Cabinet Secretary captured and depicted in the submission by Hon. Wamboka and in the documents attached to the Motion clearly point him going against the national values and principles of governance as stipulated under Article 10(2)(c). The national values and principles of governance include good governance, integrity, transparency and accountability, among other things. A person holding the office of a Cabinet Secretary is not a small person. Article 152 of the Constitution provides for the Cabinet and we all know the composition of the Cabinet. Under Article 152, a Cabinet Secretary is a member of Cabinet. Under Article 152(4)(a), the Constitution goes further to say that each person appointed as a Cabinet Secretary assumes office by swearing or affirming faithfulness to the people and the Republic of Kenya, obedience to the Constitution, and so on. Article 153(2) goes further to state that Cabinet Secretaries are accountable to the President for the exercise of their powers and the performance of their functions individually and collectively. Why am I saying this? An impeachment Motion such as this one is indeed a tool of last resort all over the world. In all mature democracies, Parliament such as this one resort to impeachment Motions and processes as an action of last resort. The Constitution provides for avenues through which a Cabinet Secretary can vacate office. One of them is through dismissal by the appointing authority. Another one is by resignation. The third one is through this process of impeachment. The appointing authority and Hon. Linturi could have saved the time of this House and the country by doing what is necessary. Hon. Linturi should have voluntarily resigned by now. Failure to do so, the appointing authority who is the President of the Republic of Kenya should have taken the most logical action and fired him. Therefore, this House has a duty under the Constitution since both Linturi and the President have failed to do what the Constitution requires them—to take the action it is currently contemplating, sending this Cabinet Secretary home. I have looked at the issues raised. It sounds like something from Hollywood. You may think that you are watching a movie. A whole Cabinet Secretary storms the premises of a private company, Kel Chemicals Limited, and direct or in fact attempt to frog-match the"
},
{
"id": 1408972,
"url": "http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1408972/?format=api",
"text_counter": 100,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Ugunja, ODM",
"speaker_title": "Hon. Opiyo Wandayi",
"speaker": null,
"content": "The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor"
},
{
"id": 1408973,
"url": "http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1408973/?format=api",
"text_counter": 101,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Ugunja, ODM",
"speaker_title": "Hon. Opiyo Wandayi",
"speaker": null,
"content": "management of the company to participate in a press conference at the premises of the National Cereals and Produce Board (NCPB) and take responsibility over something that the Cabinet Secretary is directly culpable. I wish Hon. Members would listen to me. I am saying that matters of food production and food security directly touch on national security. In some countries, you would be summarily executed in public any moment there is evidence of tampering with food production by way of supplying substandard or fake farm inputs including fertiliser. In those countries, you would be summarily executed in public if suspected of having been involved in jeopardising the food security of the country or nation. We are lucky to have a functioning Constitution and being governed by the rule of law. This is not a small or light matter of politics. This is not about Kenya Kwanza or Azimio. It cannot be. This is also not about Hon. Jack Wamboka. It is about the survival of this country. History has recorded that countries that are not food-efficient have been prone to coups, counter-coups and civil upheavals. Anybody attempting to jeopardise food production is inviting us as a country to go that direction. A hungry country or populace is very dangerous. You cannot govern it. You cannot govern a hungry population. They can rise up against you anytime and overthrow you. The Cabinet Secretary and his accomplices are directly responsible for attempting to subvert food production in this country. Can you tell me that the Cabinet Secretary does not get involved in the procurement by NCPB? You can tell that to the birds. Everybody who lives in this country knows how government works. NCPB is a government entity. It is a parastatal within the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Development, under the supervision of its Cabinet Secretary. How on earth did NCPB procure hundreds of thousands of bags of NPK fertiliser from a briefcase company going by the name Mems Distributors Limited, a company that has had no history of dealing with fertiliser? Mems Distributors went ahead and approached KELS Chemicals Limited to manufacture for it the fertiliser for it to supply to NCPB. What happens? KELS Chemicals Limited manufactures and supplies to Mems Distributors only 69,000 bags of NPK fertiliser 10-16-10. But then, what happens again? Mems Distributors proceeds to supply NCPB with over 400,000 bags. The question is: Where did Mems Distributors and NCPB get the extra hundreds of thousands of bags of this fertiliser? And then it turns out that these extra bags of fertiliser are the ones that were stones, gravel, sand and donkey waste, I am told. Somebody is basically sabotaging the very survival of this country. The Cabinet Secretary cannot feign ignorance because if he does, then he is not fit to hold that office. He is unfit. He is incompetent. Then NCPB goes ahead and pays for this fake fertiliser. I may call it air, because farmers will never use it anyway. It basically tells you that somebody powerful was pulling the strings behind the scenes. That is the point. Somebody even more powerful was pulling the strings behind the scenes. The Cabinet Secretary cannot absolve himself from accountability on this matter. Even more intriguing, as investigations are being conducted by the relevant investigative agencies, we are being told by my friend the Chairman of the Departmental Committee on Justice and Legal Affairs and Hon. Owen Baya that the Departmental Committee on Agriculture and Livestock is seized of the matter and that we should wait for the outcome of their investigations. And yet NCPB goes ahead to decree that it is embarking on a scheme to compensate farmers who purchased the fake fertiliser. Then you ask yourself: Where are they getting the money from? This House, to the best of my recollection, did not authorise any such expenditure. Where did NCPB get the authority and the money to compensate farmers yet the investigations are not complete. Do we even know how much this fake fertiliser was, as we speak? We do not know."
},
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"id": 1408974,
"url": "http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1408974/?format=api",
"text_counter": 102,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Ugunja, ODM",
"speaker_title": "Hon. Opiyo Wandayi",
"speaker": null,
"content": "The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor"
},
{
"id": 1408975,
"url": "http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1408975/?format=api",
"text_counter": 103,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Ugunja, ODM",
"speaker_title": "Hon. Opiyo Wandayi",
"speaker": null,
"content": "From what I know, and Hon. Speaker you know I have a lot of information, what we are being told is just but the tip of the iceberg. When the full extent of this fertiliser scandal is exposed, you will be shocked. It will be worse than the Goldenberg scandal. In my capacity as the leader of Azimio la Umoja-One Kenya Coalition Party, I am privy to a lot of information. In fact, information just comes to me. I do not go looking for information. I have a file for each of these Cabinet Secretaries and Principal Secretaries. Even if this House attempts to allow Linturi to go scot free, in the fullness of time, each person involved in this racket will have a date with destiny."
},
{
"id": 1408976,
"url": "http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1408976/?format=api",
"text_counter": 104,
"type": "scene",
"speaker_name": "",
"speaker_title": "",
"speaker": null,
"content": "(Hon. Opiyo Wandayi spoke off the record)"
},
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"id": 1408977,
"url": "http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1408977/?format=api",
"text_counter": 105,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Hon. Speaker",
"speaker_title": "",
"speaker": null,
"content": "Your time is up. You had 15 minutes."
},
{
"id": 1408978,
"url": "http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1408978/?format=api",
"text_counter": 106,
"type": "scene",
"speaker_name": "",
"speaker_title": "",
"speaker": null,
"content": "(Hon. Opiyo Wandayi spoke off the record)"
},
{
"id": 1408979,
"url": "http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1408979/?format=api",
"text_counter": 107,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Hon. Speaker",
"speaker_title": "",
"speaker": null,
"content": "Finish up in 30 seconds."
},
{
"id": 1408980,
"url": "http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1408980/?format=api",
"text_counter": 108,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Ugunja, ODM",
"speaker_title": "Hon. Opiyo Wandayi",
"speaker": null,
"content": " I support this Motion and I appeal to all my colleagues to send a message home today regardless of our political affiliations by sending this Cabinet Secretary home. That would earn us a lot of respect as an institution of Parliament. Let us, for once, allow this process to get to the Select Committee to undertake proper investigation, inquiry and hearings. With those very many remarks, I support."
}
]
}