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{
"id": 104645,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/104645/?format=api",
"text_counter": 670,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Mr. Wetangula",
"speaker_title": "The Minister for Foreign Affairs",
"speaker": {
"id": 210,
"legal_name": "Moses Masika Wetangula",
"slug": "moses-wetangula"
},
"content": " Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, it is always good to have your facts right. The population of the United Arab Emirates is 7 million. The indigenous are 3.7 million, so where are the 5 million Indians? It is just simple arithmetic. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, India has a population of 1.3 billion people while Kenya has 40 million. We have 36,000 Kenyans working in Dubai. In Bahrain, we have 2000 Kenyans working there, Qatar, where we are opening a new mission, we have 6,000 Kenyans working there and they are growing. We want to give them these services. I want this House to give my Ministry support. I want this House to support the Government. I fully appreciate what they are doing. In fact, I would want them to visit more missions and when they come back, they call me. One lamentation I can have to the House is when my colleagues finish their visit, the rules of natural justice expect that they would call me as the Minister and say we have been to the following missions and this is what we found. What do you explain? Let me go to London quickly because my time is running out. We have had a bad ambassador in London; there is no doubt about that. There is a man called Joe Muchemi who I cannot defend. He has misconducted himself and I thank the President because when I went and told the President this is what Joe Muchemi is doing, he told me recall him and he was sacked. He is no longer the High Commissioner. The rude letters that my good young colleague here read are true. I am not disowning them. He did worse things than those letters. There was an officer called Kinyuru who was his deputy. His term ended, we recalled him instead High Commissioner Muchemi came to Nairobi without authority. An ambassador is not supposed to leave his station without the authority of myself, the PS or the head of Public Service. He came to Kenya without authority and went to connive with some lawyers to sue my Permanent Secretary for recalling an officer. A case was even filed in court. Luckily, judicial sense prevailed and the case was dismissed. He was using public funds to do this. We recalled a driver, but he said that the driver was not coming. We recalled another officer and he said that the officer was not coming. When this piled up, as a responsible Minister, I went to the Head of State and explained to him everything. He told me to recall him. Of course, when you recall an ambassador, when he has behaved that way, you are terminating his services. So, the matter of Mr. Muchemi is not one that I can stand here and deny. What have I done about his misconduct? He also engaged in financial misappropriation and I have given instructions upon consultation with the Treasury. His terminal dues of Kshs3.2 million have been attached and he will not get a cent. We will recover everything that he misappropriated. Is that not what a responsible Minister should do? What else would you expect me to do? The driver who refused to come has been dismissed. What happened to this driver? He was hired as a local staff. Eventually he was promoted to become a home-based staff so he started costing the country KShs25 million a year. We recalled him, but the High Commissioner said that the driver was not coming. When we sacked the driver, the High Commissioner flew to Nairobi and went to the Public Service Commission and reinstated him. However, he is no longer working with us now. I cannot defend the indefensible. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, today, London is a very orderly station. The case of mistreating Mr. Chebukaka is true and I cannot deny it. He wrote the letters that were read here. When we recalled him, he said that he needed extra time. Being an old man of close to 70 years of age, we gave him two to three months to pack up. At the end of three months, we were given a medical report that he was unwell and that he needed medical attention."
}