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"id": 1047302,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1047302/?format=api",
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"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Kipipiri, JP",
"speaker_title": "Hon. Amos Kimunya",
"speaker": {
"id": 174,
"legal_name": "Amos Muhinga Kimunya",
"slug": "amos-kimunya"
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"content": "(xii) The Hon. (Ms.) Rehema Dida Jaldesa, MP; (xiii) The Hon. (Ms.) Mercy Wanjiku Gakuya, MP; (xiv) The Hon. James Kanini Kega Mathenge, MP; (xv) The Hon. Alfred Kiptoo Keter, MP; (xvi) The Hon. Junet Sheikh Nuh Mohamed, MP; (xvii) The Hon. (Dr.) David Eseli Simiyu, CBS, MP; (xviii) The Hon. George Peter Opondo Kaluma, MP; (xix) The Hon. Francis Tom Joseph Kajwang’, MP; (xx) The Hon. (Ms.) Esther Muthoni Rosanna Passaris, MP; (xxi) The Hon. (Ms.) Gertrude Mbeyu Mwanyanje, MP; and, (xxii) The Hon. Joshua Kivinda Kimilu, MP. Hon. Speaker, as Members may have noted, this Committee serves for a three-year term and a second term of two years. They consider appointments by the President. It is chaired by the Speaker. It is not a very busy Committee and Members have had very few sittings. As the Committee on Selection, we thought it will not be good to reconstitute this Committee. We are not sure whether there will be any appointments that will be made and, therefore, bringing in Members from other Committees to this Committee and losing the institutional memory and strength created in this Committee for one-and-a-half years is not the best thing to do. The whole Committee has been reappointed in total. I wanted to alert Members on that. That is the situation. I want to ask Members not to have a feeling that Members get into committees for personal benefit. Certainly, I will be disappointed if the feeling was that the agitation for being in specific committees is because of the perceived personal benefits of being in a committee. I will wonder why Members want to serve in a committee. Members of the Chairperson’s Panel sit here for three hours and I am not sure they get any benefit for that. It is a service and that is what we need to focus on. We are here to serve and to make Kenya a better country, and not because of any benefits that we may accrue because of serving in a committee. In any case, that is against Chapter Six of the Constitution. Hon. Speaker, you have ruled on this severally, including the way we conduct ourselves in committees. For example, we should not be escorting people who are supposed to appear before a committee, so that we are not seen as though we are going to debate on how to change the issues before the committee. The issue of independence is critical. I want to believe, as it has been said, that transparency is brought by the Budget and Appropriations Committee and other committees through tabling of reports here, so that people can see the rationale of the decisions that committees arrive at. We make decisions based on that and not on deals that were cut in places outside this House. I believe that when a committee brings a report here on any matter of inquiry, it has applied its brain, experience and professionalism on the matter, rather than having negotiated for personal or constituency benefit. I believe that is what happens. That is how I was trained. I want to see Parliament that way moving forward. Should it appear to us – and we have discussed this at length with my colleague, the Leader of the Minority Party – that Members are extracting rent in the committees from the people who appear before them, we will be the first ones to ask the Whips to de-whip such Members, so that we have a clean 12th Parliament that will set the pace for the 13th Parliament. We will stick to that standard and Members will be at liberty to take any action against me. I will clean such Members before they clean me. I am not worried because I have been impeached before for taking a stance. I will be happy to take a stand to ensure that we have a sense of integrity and decorum in the way committees work. I believe Members – and they are here – The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor."
}