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{
    "id": 1067822,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1067822/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 342,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Kikuyu, JP",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Kimani Ichung’wah",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 1835,
        "legal_name": "Anthony Kimani Ichung'Wah",
        "slug": "anthony-kimani-ichungwah"
    },
    "content": " Thank you, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker. Just like the people’s Leader of the Majority Party said, I also rise to defend the Constitution of 2010 as I swore in 2013 and in 2017, to defend and protect the Constitution of the Republic of Kenya. The BBI process is a culmination of the handshake and the BBI taskforce’s work which was started in 2018 by the two presidential candidates who were there in 2017. I must be quick to mention that this document is to me a poisoned chalice anchored on treachery and loaded with deception. It is a very deceptive document right from the onset because it is billed as a popular initiative. In the strict definition of what a popular initiative is, it depicts that it is people led, a process done by the people, for the people in the interest and for the benefit of the people. However, guided by what the Hon. Speaker guided this House, that he, indeed, finds it to be a popular initiative, may I be quick to point out that it is, indeed, a popular initiative by the political class in this country. It is a popular initiative by the political class for the benefit and interest of only the political class. In defence of the Constitution, 2010, this document closes back on the gains that we enacted with the Constitution, 2010. From a point where Members in this Assembly can vet vet Cabinet Secretaries, we are now clawing back on those powers. We are now giving unfettered powers to the President to appoint cabinet secretaries and principal secretaries without vetting. We are taking away powers from the constitutional commissions that we created. We are taking powers from the National Police Service (NPS) to the Inspector-General (IG) of Police, an individual. It is not surprising that there are already steps to abuse power by the IG and officers under his watch. We are taking powers from the JSC to an ombudsman. We are also clawing back on the independence of the Judiciary, as many people have said. I am trying not to repeat what has been said. We are taking away powers from the JSC that currently sets up a tribunal to listen to issues that touch on judicial officers and giving them unfettered powers to even discipline judicial officers. That is a clear way of clawing back on the independence of the Judiciary. The JSC, as it is constituted now, is heavily loaded with people leaning towards the Executive. At the passage of this Constitution, giving powers to the JSC to punish judicial offices will mean that they are being indirectly punished by the Executive using their stooges in the JSC. I want to state that this document is loaded with deception. Apart from the Youth Commission, we are promising our youth that BBI will waive taxes to their companies. I want to speak to the Kenyan youth today. I wonder the number of the ordinary Kenyan hustler youth that have companies that will benefit from the tax waivers. If we intend to waive taxes for our youth, we only need to do it with the Finance Bill that is before this House. I want to tell the Kenyan youth that the deception you will be confronted with is that we will lift taxes but the companies that will benefit are the ones you saw in the covid billionaires scandal, that is, the companies that were registered and in a month they were getting tenders worth billions! We know the youth who own those companies and their families and they are the ones we are creating the tax incentives for. If we want to give our youth tax waivers, then let us do it next week with the Finance Bill. The truth is that we will be loading our Kenyan youth together with their parents, children and grandparents with heavy taxes with the Finance Bill that is coming before this House. That is the truth and not the deception in the BBI. 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."
}