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"speaker_name": "Mr. Abdikadir",
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"legal_name": "Abdikadir Hussein Mohamed",
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"content": "(xi) The Kenya Medical Association, plus the director. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, the reason why I read that long list of institutions is that the advisory body is made up of one person nominated by each of those organizations. Typically, they send either a very senior member, the chief executive or the chairperson to represent them on the advisory body. It is this body that is then charged with hiring the director and the four assistant directors. What they do is to advertise for the job through a competitive process and then undertake interviews. They undertook that function. They advertised for the posts and then they interviewed. That is the advisory board that is then mandated to send to Parliament one person for each of those posts. It is not supposed to send two or three people, just one person. They did that also. They sent us one person for each of those posts; one for the Director, Mr. Lumumba and one each for the assistant directors. The function of the parliamentary committee is to process that for Parliament so that Parliament can approve those names. That is the function of Parliament, as given by the Act; it is to approve those names. As a Committee, we went ahead and processed that. We held five meetings as a committee to process this matter. We decided that we should not just rely on the fact that however respectable these institutions were, they would send us the names and we would bring them forward. We decided to go ahead and do our own further detailed work. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, the first thing we did, as Mr. Nyamweya said, was to look at the fact that Parliamentâs vetting process needs to be structured. The committee came up with a manual for vetting, which looked at a very detailed information questionnaire, including financial information, conflict of interest and earlier work done by each of the individuals involved in this issue. All that is part of the records. Thereafter, we wrote to all their former employers or people who were associated with these people, including the Law Society of Kenya and the university as far as the lady is concerned. We wrote to independent organizations, including government agencies to give us background information. All the information we received was in the positive. The Law Society of Kenya gave us good reports as far as the individuals were concerned. The Advocates Complaints Commission returned a clean bill of health. The NSIS gave background reports that were positive. All the background information came out positive. The questionnaires also gave us detailed information. Thereafter, as a Committee, we processed this information, so that we could give Parliament our views. In moving forward, a number of issues came up. These issues were pointed out by Mr. Nyamweya. One, as far as the director is concerned, did the board consider the political colour of his past? As far as Mr. Bowry is concerned, did they consider the fact that he was an advocate for a number of accused people? Because of that, we called the board to our meeting, so that they could come and talk to us and we could assure ourselves that in making this decision, they had taken into account all those issues. They said they had taken those issues into account, and that they were unanimous that these were the right people for various reasons. One, each of these people was the top candidate in his or her interview and those interviews were structured professionally. Two, as far as the political issue was concerned, one of the members of the advisory board, the gentleman who was sent there by the Institute of Certified Public Accountants, was a former Member of this House. A number of the anti-corruption entities around this region, including the Rwandan and Ugandan entities, are all headed by former members of parliament. In their opinion, the law did not require that you did not have to be a former member of parliament, or that you did not have to be a former politician. Two, having looked at this particular issue, they did not see how that would colour the judgment of Mr. Lumumba. Indeed, Mr. Lumumba is not just a person who had political backgrounds. He was a lawyer of standing. He was a former Professor of the University of Nairobiâs Law School. His public figure is of repute. Therefore, in the total of the circumstances, they were sure that he would be more an asset and that political part of his experience would not hinder that process. Our Committee accepted those explanations. Indeed, in this country, we have judges who were former politicians. The fact that one was a former politician does not in and of itself, bar one from holding a post. Indeed, there are certain posts that the law itself says that one should not have active involvement."
}