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"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Hon. Kingi",
"speaker_title": "The Speaker",
"speaker": null,
"content": " Hon. Sen. Mungatana, I do not think that Sen. (Dr.) Khalwale meant that. Indeed, if you remember, during the debate on the State of the Nation, none other than the Hon. Senators were of the view - and after listening - that there could be dirty money that is making its way into the harambees. Therefore, it is important to bring transparency to the harambees; it is decent to do some accountability in the way we do these harambees. Out of that concern, this House is going to resolve that action is taken. One of them is basically to legislate and bring sanity to the harambee space. So, yes, there is that general perception that not everybody who contributes to harambee is a thief, but as you know from my use of a Kiswahili saying, “Samaki mmojaakioza, bahari nzima imeoza.” This particular piece of legislation is to address that particular one, if and when there are 1,000 wonderful people. At least this particular person who we are not sure of his sources of funds, such funds should not make its way into the hands of the public. That is why this law is proposed. I do not think that the Hon. Senator for Kakamega County had an ill motive in saying that some of these monies are dirty. That money could have fixed a bad road. If at all it ended up in the wrong hands, it is that money that is coming at the tail-end to bury that victim of that very bad road; that came as a result of the money that had been stolen. So, it is that space that we are trying to clean up. There are good people who will bring their hard-earned money and those questionable amounts that still find a way. Therefore, to make sure that we have good money in this harambee ecosystem, the proposed law is just to sanitise that space. Sen. (Dr.) Khalwale, you may proceed."
},
{
"id": 1499693,
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"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Sen. (Dr.) Khalwale",
"speaker_title": "",
"speaker": {
"id": 170,
"legal_name": "Bonny Khalwale",
"slug": "bonny-khalwale"
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"content": "Thank you, Mr. Speaker, Sir. I would not have put it better. I truly thank you. This Bill is not a joke. There is still money meant for drugs in hospitals and thanks to that shortage, patients die and they come to bury us. They steal money meant to fix our roads, they go ahead and buy four-wheel drives that can avoid potholes. They buy choppers, courtesy of those bad roads, when we die, they come to show us. We do not want that money. In Tana River County, I have had the choice and pleasure, for six years, to practice medicine, in the former Coast Province. I know what poverty has done, not just at the Coast, but in the entire country. So, they steal money meant to improve the productivity of the lands at the coast, so that they allow the people of Tana River County to come to them through harambees, begging for food. Through this law, we do not want that kind of money. This law has been very well-thought through. When you read through it, it is not casual. Let me respond, for example, to the concerns of the Senator for Tana River County on this Bill. We have Part III, which speaks to fundraising appeals. Clause 8 says- 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": 1499694,
"url": "http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1499694/?format=api",
"text_counter": 151,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Sen. (Dr.) Khalwale",
"speaker_title": "",
"speaker": {
"id": 170,
"legal_name": "Bonny Khalwale",
"slug": "bonny-khalwale"
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"content": "“The provisions of this Part shall not apply to a private fundraising appeal where the solicitation is made from members of the beneficiary’s nuclear family or relatives and does not extend to members of the public.” This Bill will allow us to sit as a family in Malinya and a family in Idakho and do our fundraising. What they are against is public fundraising. The law has gone further in Clause 9 to create a distinction between public and private fundraising. It is the public fundraising that we want to control. I, therefore, wish to appeal to colleagues; let us go through this proposal with a tooth comb, so that we can refine it for it to be better. Are you saying this thing is a joke? A few days ago, you saw none other than the Catholic Bishops in Kenya speak to this issue. In fact, in an unprecedented action. Archbishop Philip Anyolo, who for the information of this House is a man born in Shinyalu and he is the Archbishop here in Nairobi, has done the unthinkable. He has returned the money to politicians. Mr. Speaker, Sir, when we are doing something that does not appeal to the public and knowing that Catholics control over 50 per cent of the Christians; they have permeated all our villages in country. They could possibly be the voice of the poor who we pretend to be assisting, when thieves are using that opportunity to sanitize money that they have stolen from our coffers, they may not accept our money. We must address it so that on Sunday, when I go to church, when all our other politicians go to church, including the Head of State, he can comfortably make his contribution without any worries as to the interpretation. This law has gone further. In Clause 11, they have put exemptions, and the exemptions are here. If you go to Clause 11, they tell you that money or property collected by or under the authority of a recognized representative of a religious association is exempted. It means once the law is through, we can then go to Archbishop Anyolo and give him our contribution to help the church be constructed. I would be the last person to fight the harambee spirit because if it had not been for the Kshs100 in 1976, which Mwilista Lihalang’ang’a gave me as a contribution to my harambee, I would not have finished my education in Musingu High School. Musingu High School, one of the top schools in this country. It was started by the spirit of harambee. Shiywe Hospital, which I have upgraded from a dispensary, was started by a harambee drive . Therefore, harambee is good. However, if unregulated, people will use it to sanitise the money they steal from us. I conclude by acknowledging that this is indeed a difficult decision to make. Someone who will not take trouble to read this Bill will think we are against charitable activity. No! One of the charitable organisations I belong to where I am a director, Touch Africa was started by the late Michael Kijana Wamalwa because he believed in touching people. We want to touch people, but with honour and not when taking advantage of them. Mr. Speaker, Sir, I support this Bill strongly. I propose that at the right time, we will come with proposals to amend it, so as to make it better. I thank you."
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{
"id": 1499695,
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"text_counter": 152,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Hon. Kingi",
"speaker_title": "The Speaker",
"speaker": null,
"content": " Sen. Olekina, proceed. 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": 1499696,
"url": "http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1499696/?format=api",
"text_counter": 153,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Sen. Olekina",
"speaker_title": "",
"speaker": {
"id": 407,
"legal_name": "Ledama Olekina",
"slug": "ledama-olekina"
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"content": "Mr. Speaker, Sir, I have no beef with people coming together to help one individual improve their status of living. I grew up in a society where we encouraged the harambee movement. However, I believe that the pace we are now taking in regulating fundraisings is completely ill-advised. I say so, because I have taken some time to read through the Public Fundraising Appeals Bill (Senate Bills No.36 of 2024). I do not support the proposals made in this Bill. We are a country that should be working hard to ensure that every citizen has access to free health care. We should be working so hard to ensure that every young child born from the bundus of Narok or Turkana are able to get access to quality and free education as well as health care. Regulating this kind of fundraising is making sure that we are condemning this generation into poverty. I completely detest that approach. I have listened to the Majority Whip talking about how he could not have finished school without harambee . That is very true to all of us. However, are we going to stagnate and stay there for the rest of our generation or are we going to do things differently? Earlier on in the morning session, the Cabinet Secretary for Lands, Public Works, Housing and Urban Development made a statement that Narok County, with six sub- counties, will be entitled to a minimum of 220 houses per sub-county. That makes it about 1,320 houses for Narok County. When I stood to enquire further on that, she said that it is just the beginning. Mr. Speaker, Sir, I invite my colleagues to discuss how we will make sure that the State take responsibility of those who have not been given an opportunity to get where we are. When you require us to profile individuals carrying out fundraising activities, I then conclude that we are contented with being poor and widening the gap between the rich and the poor. You cannot say that you will maintain an annual register of persons licensed by it to conduct a public fundraising appeal under this Act. You go further to say that you will have a Cabinet Secretary who will authorize. You even go further to say that in each county, you will have a CECM who keep a register. We are completely losing our trajectory in terms of development in this country. If the Sponsor of this Bill was telling us to regulate charitable organisations so that they can spell out their mission and goals, we would regulate them and allow them to carry out fundraising. In America, where I spent almost 20 years of my life, we had non- profit and charitable organisations. Are we saying we want to profile and keep a list of individuals? I wish we were talking about keeping a list of charitable organisations. Mr. Speaker, Sir, we need to change and find out when the rains started beating us to a point where we are paying for primary school education when we had made progress during the period when the late President, His Excellency Mwai Kibaki came into power. Children would easily go to school for free. If you ask any of these Members seated here to show you their phones, you will find a harambee invitation to pay school fees or a person to go to hospital. This Bill says that this is an Act of Parliament to provide a framework for regulations in the conduct of public fundraising appeals to promote transparency and accountability in carrying out of fundraising appeals and foster great philanthropy. I detest this. 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."
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"id": 1499697,
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"text_counter": 154,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Sen. Olekina",
"speaker_title": "",
"speaker": {
"id": 407,
"legal_name": "Ledama Olekina",
"slug": "ledama-olekina"
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"content": "How do you foster great philanthropy when everybody in this country knows that the only people who can come up with money are politicians? Are you not encouraging corruption then? Are you not encouraging an issue where you are elected to office because of how much you can give instead of meritocracy? We need to focus on developing this nation. We need to come up with policies that will ensure that we narrow this gap between the rich and the poor; those who have and those who have none. We made progress by introducing a new Constitution. We now have counties. We now have to change the way we make legislation. I long for the time that we will be sitting here and talking about the residents of Tana River County who have decided that every child in that county will go to school for free. That the money they are taxed will be directed there. However, if we are regulating fundraising and then in the same law, say you are excluding family fundraising activities--- I beseech all of us to move away from this kind of legislation. We are over- legislating."
},
{
"id": 1499698,
"url": "http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1499698/?format=api",
"text_counter": 155,
"type": "scene",
"speaker_name": "",
"speaker_title": "",
"speaker": null,
"content": "(Applause)"
},
{
"id": 1499699,
"url": "http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1499699/?format=api",
"text_counter": 156,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Sen. Olekina",
"speaker_title": "",
"speaker": {
"id": 407,
"legal_name": "Ledama Olekina",
"slug": "ledama-olekina"
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"content": "Let us sit down and see how we will make sure that we develop policies that will ensure that in future, a granddaughter of the Majority Whip or the Senate Majority Leader will go to school, not having to worry about harambees."
},
{
"id": 1499700,
"url": "http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1499700/?format=api",
"text_counter": 157,
"type": "scene",
"speaker_name": "",
"speaker_title": "",
"speaker": null,
"content": "(Sen. Cherarkey spoke off record)"
},
{
"id": 1499701,
"url": "http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1499701/?format=api",
"text_counter": 158,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Sen. Olekina",
"speaker_title": "",
"speaker": {
"id": 407,
"legal_name": "Ledama Olekina",
"slug": "ledama-olekina"
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"content": "Yes. The Senate Majority Leader keeps on telling us about harambees, which is pushing us back. We were profiled as a less developed country. We went up to a medium developing country. We have now gone to a point where we have developed nations. I am sure my good brother, the Chairperson of the Committee on County Public Accounts (CPAC) will tell you that when they went to the Conference of the Parties (COP29), our Presidents did not even go. So, it was just a room full of individuals who have dreams, but cannot implement them. They were just talking about giving Africa US$1.3 trillion, just because we spent US$3 trillion in promoting warfare among countries. It is a talk show. I want to plead with the sponsor of this Bill. My good brother, my good friend and the Senate Majority Leader, amend this Bill to regulate charitable organisations. I will support him 100 per cent on that. Number two, let us ensure that we have registered these charitable organisations or non-profit making organisations. If they are supported by an entity outside the country, whatever is imported here is not taxed again at the airport. I am sure the Majority Leader has received so many phone calls from NGOs saying that they received books as donations, but they are being asked to pay taxes. Mr. Speaker, Sir, to save this Bill, let us not limit it to individuals. Let us come up with the proper regulations for charitable organisations. Let us persuade each county to say their biggest problem. Recently, I saw a gazette notice where the Cabinet Secretary in 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."
}
]
}