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"id": 114164,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/114164/?format=api",
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"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Mr. ole Ntimama",
"speaker_title": "The Minister of State for National Heritage",
"speaker": {
"id": 200,
"legal_name": "William Ronkorua ole Ntimama",
"slug": "william-ntimama"
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"content": " Thank you, Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, for giving me this opportunity. I stand here to support the Presidential Address which was made in this House during the State Opening of Parliament. I have got a few things to talk about. First of all, let me start by talking about corruption. The President mentioned corruption very mildly, indeed. It is unfortunate that we are handling corruption as if it is a normal issue. Definitely, it is not a normal issue for this country. The word âcorruptionâ is a household word in Kenya today. Everybody, child, man and woman know about corruption negatively, of course, and you know that. If we do not watch corruption very carefully; if we do not control it; if we do not fight it properly, this country could easily degenerate into a failed state for many reasons. Definitely, we know that corruption destroys the economy of the country. We know that corruption does not help increase essential services to wananchi, for example, medical, education and many other things like infrastructure. Once corruption has taken place, then all these things disappear. We know very well that corruption starts from the top to the bottom. There would be no corruption if it was not supported, aided, condoned and if it had no sympathizers at the top. We know that corruption is embedded among the top hierarchy and officials of this country. If you look at the simple example of the policeman; he is arrested, charged and dismissed because he is said to have taken Kshs100 from a driver. A young girl cooking tea in an office takes a little money which was supposed to buy milk for the bosses, probably because she felt hungry. She is arrested and thrown into jail while the big guns who stole billions of shillings have never been touched. I do not know of any who has been touched. They are all free and they even come back to their positions. It is a crime if you suspend somebody who is suspected of stealing public money. But even somebody who is suspected goes back; there is a little inquiry, he comes back to this House and goes back to his position. The policeman goes out, loses his job and he goes to join the poor lot of this country while the other guy goes to become the boss again. It is unfortunate. If we do not watch corruption, then definitely, I can say without doubt, this country will sink into the deep pit of this world. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, some of the corruption matters that are in the public domain today or in the Press actually, touches on very sensitive areas and we donât seem to mind. One of them touches on the primary education of our children. Whether it is true or not, it is a very sensitive area. This is a highly celebrated thing of free primary education. We have been talking about it. It is celebrated. Everybody has brought it up, from the President to the man at the bottom that we have achieved and gone up there. Now, there is a problem. We do not even want to investigate. We want to say: âI did not. I will not!â That is where we are. The other issue is about food security. Maize is getting lost. We have an argument in this House to say: âNo, do not touch that.â If somebody had credibility, then he should just step aside for the investigators to find out what is happening. Nobody wants to do it because they want to protect their own interests. They want to come back and say: âAfter all, I did it but nobody saw me.â We have a record of all these things. All those people who have stolen from the public have amassed a lot of money. They have messed up this country on one issue; all of them want to become presidents of this land because they know that the people of Kenya are poor and they can be bribed. So, this money is used to bribe the good citizens of this country to elect people who are not fit to be leaders."
}