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{
"id": 1111664,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1111664/?format=api",
"text_counter": 381,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Sen. Farhiya",
"speaker_title": "",
"speaker": {
"id": 13179,
"legal_name": "Farhiya Ali Haji",
"slug": "farhiya-ali-haji"
},
"content": "somebody who is living beyond their means, the evidence is seen in the kind of property somebody has and the kind of lifestyle somebody lives, the kind of schools that his children go to, the kind of house that he lives in and the kind of cars that he drives. It is evidence that you can see. In this Bill that framework is being established to ensure that it becomes obvious to many people that this person is living beyond his means. This issue needs to be addressed so that we tackle corruption comprehensively. The other issue that motivated me to sponsor this Bill was that in June, 2018, our President, His Excellency Uhuru Kenyatta, had said that all public officers must go through a lifestyle audit. At that time, there were so many people who went to public forums to claim that there is no legal framework to undertake that. That is what made me to start doing my research and I discovered that there are two countries that have very clear legal frameworks on how to carry out a lifestyle audit, that is the United Kingdom and South Africa. So, I started collecting data. I do not think there are any people who can beat our legal team in the Senate plus all the other people who support them. After working with them for a few months, we were able to generate this Bill. I wish to thank everyone who was involved; the Director of Legal Services, Senate, the staff and the secretariat who made this dream a reality in this country. The following statutes have been enacted before to address corruption: The Anti- Corruption and Economic Crimes Act, the Public Officers Ethics Act, the Leadership and Integrity Act, the Public Service Values and Principles Act, the Bribery Act, the Proceeds of Crime and Anti Money Laundering Act, the Public Finance Management Act and the Public Procurement and Disposal Act. This shows, therefore, that there is plenty of laws to make provisions for leadership and integrity and criminalize corruption and other economic crimes. However, corruption is still prevalent and tackling it continues to be a challenge. The investigative agencies still face an uphill task in investigating and establishing corruption and corrupt practices. Noting that the public officers seem to be living large, one of the ways of identifying and rooting out corruption may be to undertake a lifestyle audit of public officers suspected to beyond their means. This just shows that once the Senate passes this Bill, there will be a legal framework covering that lacuna that we need to cure in order to carry out that task effectively. The Bill cures that lacuna by the following provisions: The lifestyle audit process, the standard of professional conduct when carrying out a lifestyle audit, bodies to be involved in carrying out the lifestyle audit, reporting and investigation of unexplained wealth, the declaration of income, assets and liabilities, referral of matters to the Director of Public Prosecution (DPP) after conclusion of the lifestyle audit, the procedure for carrying out lifestyle audit on public officers. This Bill also covers the following provisions: An overview of the Bill where there is reason to believe that, that officer is living beyond his or her means, unlawfully obtained and reported income, the officer is unable to account for sources of income, the officer has misappropriated funds under the officer’s care and trust."
}