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{
    "id": 100193,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/100193/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 352,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Dr. Khalwale",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 170,
        "legal_name": "Bonny Khalwale",
        "slug": "bonny-khalwale"
    },
    "content": "Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I stand corrected. Several accusations have been raised by previous speakers against P.L.O. Lumumba. P.L.O. Lumumba is being accused of not deserving to take this job because he was the Secretary of the Bomas process that flopped. I want to liken P.L.O. Lumumba’s job to the job of the people who used to drive us when we used to come to Nairobi by bus. Inside the bus, you would always have a very faithful turn boy and a very competent driver. P.L.O. Lumumba, at the Bomas Process, was merely a turn boy. The driver of that bus that did not make its journey was none other than the Chairman, Prof. Yash Pal Ghai. Therefore, the failings of Prof. Yash Pal Ghai, as the Chairman of the Bomas process, should not be blamed on P.L.O. Lumumba to the extent that we deny him an opportunity to serve his own nation. P.L.O. Lumumba has been accused of being a politician, purely because he was a chairman of a party and a parliamentary candidate in 2007. Hon. Members, let us stop for a moment and think. As they say in English, what is good for the goose should also be good for the hunter. If you want to stop P.L.O. Lumumba from taking this job simply because he had that ambition, why did the previous Parliament not stop hon. Abuya Abuya from becoming a Commissioner of the Electoral Commission of Kenya when he had been a Member of this House? Why did this Parliament, last year, not stop hon. Andrew Ligale from becoming the Chairman of the Interim Independent Boundaries Review Commission when Ligale had been an active Member of this House? Why did the previous Parliament – and that Parliament had none other than James Orengo; a high profile politician in this country - not stop Mr. Kivuitu from becoming the Chairman of the Electoral Commission of Kenya (ECK) when he used to be the Member of Parliament for Parklands? Let us also remember that amongst the current serving high commissioners and ambassadors are former Members of Parliament who were our colleagues in the last Parliament. That was just the other day. So, we cannot deny P.L.O. Lumumba this job on that accord. I heard hon. Nyamweya advance the theory that P.L.O. Lumumba and Bowry had been advocates in cases of corruption. I was listening to him because I thought he would go further. I would have liked Nyamweya, who is, himself, a lawyer, to show us evidence here that P.L.O. Lumumba and Bowry should be denied because if it was in the case of Anglo Leasing or Goldenberg--- Mr. Nyamweya should have gone further and shown us two cases where, either P.L.O. Lumumba or Bowry, or their law firms were used as conduits in the proceeds of corruption. All they did was that they represented thieves. Are you telling me that thieves, murderers and rapists do not get representation from lawyers? They were representing clients who had been accused of those things. One of our very active Members of the Opposition Bench, Ms. Martha Karua, is a lawyer. I know for a fact that before she came to Parliament in 1992, she was a very strong lawyer advocating for the rights of all people and was accused of all manner of things. She was doing this because she was protecting their human rights. We are not going to stop young lawyers from defending clients who are accused of crimes like murder, rape and other forms of unacceptable human behavior, because they fear that ten years down their professional line, they will be denied to serve in a national institution."
}