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{
"id": 1496902,
"url": "http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1496902/?format=api",
"text_counter": 124,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Sen. Cherarkey",
"speaker_title": "",
"speaker": {
"id": 13217,
"legal_name": "Cherarkey K Samson",
"slug": "cherarkey-k-samson"
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"content": "proposing that we make it six months and not three years to elections. In case of a by-election, let us agree it is one month before a by-election. If we make it three years, then all of us will be disqualified from participating in 2027. Let us make it six months to the general election. We should ban public officials and elected Members of Parliament (MP) from conducting a fundraiser. The fine should also be reduced from Kshs5 million to Kshs500,000. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, on the issue of submission of permits, I do not see the need of a cabinet secretary. They are too busy to regulate harambees. Let us ensure that they are not part of this. How will they do that if they cannot even come here to answer our questions? What are you telling us? Will they be able to approve permits of Kshs250,000 in my village, Mosoriot? Let us be honest. What is a cabinet secretary doing issuing a permit when they cannot even do their job right? They should be left to do other more important things. Let us avoid this. The cabinet secretary and the CECM should keep off the harambees. Let the Government keep off. We should let the people self-regulate. The law should regulate harambees so that they are not used at the expense of others. The Cabinet secretaries are too busy. We have given them more responsibility than regulating harambees of Kshs250,000 conducted somewehere in Mosoriot, Chemumbe Village, Kaptel, Chemamul or Setek in Tinderet. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, I totally disagree with auditing of harambees, especially the private ones. If I have raised Kshs250,000 to do a funeral expense, why would you do an audit on it? In fact, you will be using more money sending Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) officers to come and audit Kshs250,000 that are meant for funeral expenses or to send a child to school. What is this? The KRA has more important things than auditing fundraisers. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, let us give the standard on the issue of taxation and the KRA involvement in auditing. Let us say, if you raise, especially public fundraising, like the Safaricom Kenyans for Kenyans--- I have never understood why, when your Safaricom data expires, they take it away. In my opinion that is corruption. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, when we have raised Kshs100 million, for example, let KRA and others audit. However, you do not need to burden KRA with little amounts of money. We have better things to do in the country. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, I will only support this law if it is only to give a regulatory framework on how to conduct an harambee in a simplified version. Let us not create bureaucracy in terms of conducting harambees. Let us allow the church and public places to do the harambees. Let us allow Kenyans who have economic burden to do private harambees for medical and compassionate expenses. Let us allow Kenyans to do harambees to send their children to universities. I agree there is a progressive university funding model, but it will not touch every Kenyan. There are many young men and women who are in school The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Director, Hansard and AudioServices, Senate."
},
{
"id": 1496903,
"url": "http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1496903/?format=api",
"text_counter": 125,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Sen. Cherarkey",
"speaker_title": "",
"speaker": {
"id": 13217,
"legal_name": "Cherarkey K Samson",
"slug": "cherarkey-k-samson"
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"content": "today courtesy of harambees. I am a product of harambee. We need to rethink about this law. I will ask my brother, Sen. Cheruiyot, to rethink about this law. We might even request him to withdraw first, so that we come up with a simplified version of conducting harambees. We should not say we are doing this because the Gen Zs were protesting. There are known leaders. If you see a leader giving out Kshs20 million or Kshs55 million in an harambee, the best you can do is to send the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) to do lifestyle audits, but you cannot ban the harambees. If you see Cherarkey giving Kshs20 million in a harambee, and you know he does not have that money, just send the EACC and the KRA to do lifestyle. That is how we will resolve this issue. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, please, allow me one more second; I think the spirit of the Lord has just got in. I reject the Public Fundraising Appeal Bill, 2024, until we amend it to fit Kenyans, so that they can comfortably do fundraising without interference from the Government or anybody. I thank you."
},
{
"id": 1496904,
"url": "http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1496904/?format=api",
"text_counter": 126,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Sen. Abdul Haji",
"speaker_title": "The Temporary Speaker",
"speaker": null,
"content": " Sen. Beatrice Ogola, please, proceed."
},
{
"id": 1496905,
"url": "http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1496905/?format=api",
"text_counter": 127,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Sen. Ogola",
"speaker_title": "",
"speaker": null,
"content": "Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, the harambee, or public appeal, as it is referred to, is a voluntary exercise. There is a saying which says that when you want to kill a dog, you give it a bad name. A few of us have abused this noble activity that has helped this nation come up with very credible institutions. The harambee spirit is a spirit of our forefathers. When we were growing up, there were even schools that were referred to as harambee schools. This is because people came together, collected the little that each one of them had, and were able to put up schools that notable personalities in this country went through, and today they are credible people wherever they are. I was amazed when the Mover of this Bill referred to an issue of seeking public opinion. Why would we seek public opinion when we know what harambees have done in this country? It is only a few of us that have abused this noble initiative called harambee. Harambee is giving what you have. You have one because of a problem that is either in a family or in a community. Sometimes, we are able to contribute in the spirit of giving to build churches. As much as we do, the National Government Constituencies Development Fund (NG-CDF) was initiated in the country and there are specific things that it contributes to. It is only limited to the development of schools and institutions. With the coming of devolution, we now have two levels of government that control development, the national government and the county government. However, there is a missing link. There are limits to which they can do to satisfy our people. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, as I stand here, in Ndhiwa Constituency, in a ward called Kanyidoto Ward, we lost a third-year student from Moi University, who drowned in a river somewhere in Keses; a river, I am not sure, called Sosiani River. There were two students who drowned. The student that came from the Ndhiwa Constituency, Chris Otieno, was a third-year student, and I share in that The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Director, Hansard and AudioServices, Senate."
},
{
"id": 1496906,
"url": "http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1496906/?format=api",
"text_counter": 128,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Sen. Ogola",
"speaker_title": "",
"speaker": null,
"content": "bereavement and feel with the family. The father of this young boy is called Kasera, equally just a young man. If you reflect about that family and see the pathetic situation in that home, there would be no way in which the family of Chris would transport the body from Eldoret to Ndhiwa and bury, if members of the community and families around it and a few of us leaders did not come together to support that family. These are the noble areas in which harambees have helped. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, I know a number of leaders here are involved in support of funerals, either formally or informally. Currently, people form"
},
{
"id": 1496907,
"url": "http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1496907/?format=api",
"text_counter": 129,
"type": "scene",
"speaker_name": "",
"speaker_title": "",
"speaker": null,
"content": "WhatsApp"
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{
"id": 1496908,
"url": "http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1496908/?format=api",
"text_counter": 130,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Sen. Ogola",
"speaker_title": "",
"speaker": null,
"content": "groups. Some of us are not able to be in all those WhatsApp groups because it would not be easy to manage. However, we still find a way of supporting these bereaved families. Some of them are people who have died after being terminally ill for so many years. A number of them are cancer patients here in Nairobi, liver problems, and all the medical problems that we have. So, by the time somebody loses their life, the family already is financially down. Therefore, this is an initiative that has supported families. The support has not only been limited to funerals. There are even medical appeals. If we look at our phones, we will find every other person is involved in some medical appeal, if not three, four, five; some even more than that. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, what options do we have? These families are needy. People have said that they went to school through this harambee. Harambee is not necessarily going somewhere to physically give money. Harambee is about voluntary support. A number of people even pay school fee for university students. Right where I was seated this afternoon, I have just been supporting a university student at the University of Nairobi, who has not had a hostel since the beginning of the semester. They are not able to pay for accommodation, food and fees. That is also a form of giving. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, therefore, we cannot ban the spirit of harambee that has supported our people in different ways. I say this because we cannot create a problem as leaders and then find ways to solve it. How did we come to this conversation? We had leaders, some of them favoured, a number of them political, who abused this process. Just last year, we saw a number of us flying in choppers with bags of money; some of them carrying money in sacks and bags. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, I remember one video of a leader who was even dancing with money, saying Kshs1 million, Kshs2 million, Kshs3 million, Kshs10 million, I do not know up to which level. That is how we came to the conversation that we have here. However, the most desperate situation that they created for us is that they were flying money on the face of hungry and angry Kenyans. You could see leaders dangling money and the crowds they were dangling money to. The crowds comprised of parents who are not even able to pay school fees; who were hungry and had not fed their children. They were both hungry and angry. The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Director, Hansard and AudioServices, Senate."
},
{
"id": 1496909,
"url": "http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1496909/?format=api",
"text_counter": 131,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Sen. Ogola",
"speaker_title": "",
"speaker": null,
"content": "We saw the angry unemployed Kenyans. You can feel with the Kenyans the discomfort of having to see money flying in your face. People were arriving with money in choppers. At that time, children are at home because one has not paid fees and has not fed them. There are also youths who finished university five, six or ten years ago and have no jobs. That is how we came into the situation we are in. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, I have told you that the National Government Constituencies Development Fund (NG-CDF), came to support schools. However, there are certain entities that have no support. For example, the churches that we have around. We are from recess. Over recess, I attended a number of churches. One of them was a church called Nyabera Roho Israel in North Kabuoch Ward in Ndhiwa Constituency. If I gave you the picture of that church, I do not know how else they would develop that church if people do not come together to support them. The issue of harambee is voluntary, but let us look at the harambees vis-a-"
},
{
"id": 1496910,
"url": "http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1496910/?format=api",
"text_counter": 132,
"type": "scene",
"speaker_name": "",
"speaker_title": "",
"speaker": null,
"content": "vis"
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{
"id": 1496911,
"url": "http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1496911/?format=api",
"text_counter": 133,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Sen. Ogola",
"speaker_title": "",
"speaker": null,
"content": "Chapter 6 of the Constitution. Chapter 6 of the Constitution talks about leadership and integrity. Already, there is a mention of honesty, accountability and discipline. Carrying monies in bags does not arise if one is honest. If we were honest with ourselves, we would not need regulations to manage harambees. We cannot ban harambee as we need them to support the less fortunate. When we mention the issue of auditing, when people have given freely and for a purpose, there is a reason they are coming together to contribute willingly as there is a mission they want to accomplish. Why would we bring in the issue of audit? Also, in our sectors, we have not achieved so much by audit, because a number of misgivings are seen in the way our finances are handled. I support the fact that the harambee system needs to be carried as the tradition was carried forward by our forefathers in the spirit of giving what you have. It is about willingness. It is not about chest thumping and a show of power, but about solving a need that arises. I want to say no to the idea that we can stop harambees. How would we bring in the idea of clearance for our people to hold harambees? By introducing activities such as clearance, we would be creating gods in our communities. You would be giving a chief or a Cabinet Secretary or a County Executive Committee Member (CECM) work, yet they already have work cut out for them, which they are not able to accomplish. Yesterday, the Senate was sitting here and the Cabinet Secretaries were not able to come here to answer to our questions. How do we again get them involved in voluntary activities as harambees? When you bring in the aspect of clearance that you have to line up to achieve or to whoever you want to propose, we regress back to the Kenya African National Union (KANU) days, where people just created rules and executed them. The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Director, Hansard and AudioServices, Senate."
}
]
}