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{
    "id": 1122456,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1122456/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 273,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Nominated, JP",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. David ole Sankok",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13169,
        "legal_name": "Jeniffer Shamala",
        "slug": "jeniffer-shamala"
    },
    "content": "Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Hon. Kioni’s Committee has just given us a way forward. There are so many other commissions and State corporations that we need to merge. Look at the National Council for Persons with Disabilities, the National Fund for the Disabled of Kenya and the Association for the Physically Disabled of Kenya (APDK). All of them deal with the same person called ‘person with disability’ and spend a lot of money. Both the National Fund for the Disabled of Kenya (NFDK) and the National Council for Persons with Disabilities (NCPWD) are established by Acts of Parliament. They both purport to be assisting persons with disabilities. They are State corporations with board members and trustees, and they spend a lot of money for nothing. In this country, almost 60 per cent is spent on administration and very little goes to the intended beneficiaries. The National Gender and Equality Commission (NGEC) tells us that they need more funds because they do not have offices in every constituency. How can they have offices in every constituency if we have 10 commissions dealing with the same issue? When we merge them, the resources will be more and they will be able to have offices in every constituency without getting additional funds. I support what Hon. Kioni has said in this Bill that we will have a transition. We will have the NGEC Chairperson becoming a Vice-Chairperson and the Chairperson of the Kenya Human Rights Commission (KHRC) becoming the Chairperson of the new Kenya National Human Rights and Equality Commission (KNHREC). This will address all our issues because as persons with disabilities we will be very comfortable reporting our issues to the KNHREC. You know I am a human being created in the image of God. As a person with disability, I am uncomfortable reporting my issues to the NGEC. I know that even children and older persons are uncomfortable too. This is because the name itself betrays the functions of that Commission. Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, I urge this House to support this, Bill. Let us merge these commissions and let this be the beginning of reducing our wage bill. Currently, our wage bill is way beyond 53 per cent of the National Budget. Having such a wage bill means that this country will go into an economic meltdown because we will not afford to maintain all these commissions and boards. Some of these commissions were politically created to have soft landing spots for friends, relatives and even brothers of some powerful persons. When a politician loses a seat, they have a soft landing spot. If I have a girlfriend and I want to give her a job, she will have a soft landing spot because we have so many commissions and parastatals. Imagine a country like Kenya having more than 270 State corporations. What are they for? There are many State corporations dealing with drought, famine and forests. We need to clean up our State corporations and merge them; if possible, in the way the Committee led by Hon. Kioni has shown. If this House supports this merger, it will save Kenyans a lot of money. It will have a legacy of cutting on the exorbitant wage bill without laying off workers or reducing services delivered to the citizens of this country. Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, I support this Bill 100 per cent. I urge the whole House, including Hon. (Ms.) Fatuma Gedi, to support it for the sake of this country and have women affairs mainstreamed in the KNHREC. We need these equalities as persons with disabilities, marginalised groups and women but we can have this under one umbrella that will be decentralised to the ward level and constituencies to deal with issues once and for all. The NGEC is based in Nairobi. Someone from Turkana County has to spend around Kshs5,000 travelling to seek their services in Nairobi, and this is impossible. With those remarks, I support."
}