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{
    "id": 103575,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/103575/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 252,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Mr. Affey",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 381,
        "legal_name": "Mohammed Abdi Affey",
        "slug": "mohammed-affey"
    },
    "content": "Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I thank my colleague for moving this Report. What the House had asked us to do was to inquire into the possibility that the Minister might have over-stepped his mandate or abused the procedure and breached the law that exists. There is a common practice in this country, particularly with the creation of the Grand Coalition Government. There is a common practice in the Government for Ministers to continue to abuse the powers vested in them. Ministers have decided to use their privileged positions to abuse the law. This is a clear example of a case where the Minister did not, in any interpretation of the law, follow it. We have no problem with the competence or educational qualification of the current Director of the KMTC. We are not questioning his competency or whether he is the right person to hold that office. However, the procedure the Minister used to appoint the Director of the KMTC was clearly not within the law. He used his discretion to appoint that Director. He decided that the said person would be the Director of the KMTC. Therefore, the Minister bulldozed in many ways the appointment of the current Director of the KMTC. After interviewing the Minister, the conclusion, as has been made by the hon. Chairlady, the Minister disregarded the advice of the KMTC Board of Management, and yet in law, he was supposed to listen to it. He did not follow the laid down procedure as enacted in Section 8(1) of the KMTC Act. The appointment of the Director was made by the Minister for Medical Services which contravenes the same Act which he is supposed to defend. The appointment was contrary to the spirit of the National Cohesion and Reconciliation Act in that it was not fair. As the Chairman of the Committee on Equal Opportunity, I can confirm that Kenyans were not given equal access to compete for this position. Dr. Onudi is a very fine doctor and manager. He is good in many ways but the procedure in which the Minister used to appoint him clearly did not give other Kenyans an opportunity to access and serve the country in that position. Therefore, we have Ministers who contravene the law and continue to sit in the Cabinet and give policy statements. By failing to follow the due process, a huge amount of money was incurred. Why did the KMTC Board of Management have to advertise the position? Why did they have to use the taxpayers’ money? Why was it relevant for the board to use such an amount of money if their recommendations would eventually be disregarded? In fact, the recommendations were not even disregarded; they were not even considered by the Minister. Therefore, this House must resolve the manner in which it should deal with these issues. We want this country to be reformed and belong to all Kenyans. We want Kenyans to feel that Ministers who occupy privileged positions are, indeed, Ministers of the Republic of Kenya and not Minister for constituencies or tribes. We want the Kenyan women who have not been given a chance in this country to be given their fair share of the functions of the state. You have a situation where out of the applicants who applied for that job, there was one female candidate, a very fine"
}