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"id": 1147783,
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"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Kipipiri, JP",
"speaker_title": "Hon. Amos Kimunya",
"speaker": {
"id": 174,
"legal_name": "Amos Muhinga Kimunya",
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"content": " Thank you, Hon. Speaker. I want to thank Hon. Shamalla for rising to the occasion. Indeed, we were discussing whether this Report is already here. I know she is a very hardened Member of the Committee and could move even without the benefit of fore-warning. As Members are aware, we received notification from His Excellency, the President on these two Kenyans, namely, Dr. Cecilia Mbinya Mutuku and Mr. John Ogallo as candidates for appointment to the EACC to replace the two who retired ahead of their time. The names were then committed to the Committee in accordance of our Standing Orders and the law. Indeed, the House was magnanimous to even extend the time for reporting back because they were supposed to report when we were on break. Obviously, the Committee prepared a Report which was tabled on 12th May 2022. I am sure Members have had an occasion to look through it. It is a straightforward Report if you avoid all the preliminaries and issues to do with who qualified because it is within the public domain and something that was done by this House. Looking through the Report, the Committee has indicated they were satisfied with the match between the qualifications of the nominees, the requirements of the Constitution, the Acts and in terms of all the requirements. Most importantly is the procedure that was used in arriving at the nominees from filling of the vacancy, in terms of doing what was supposed to be done and conformity with the gender rules. You will notice we have a male and a female coming in, if this House approves. We have three members who are already in place, namely, Archbishop Eliud Wabukala, Colonel Alfred Mshimba, who are males, and Dr. Monica Wanjiru Muiru who is female. If these two, Dr. Cecilia Mutuku and Mr. John Ogallo are appointed, then out of the five, we will have three men and two women which will satisfy the gender requirement. In terms of regional and ethnic diversity, which is one of the issues that keeps on popping here, the Committee’s Report has looked into this and limits the number of commissioners to five. First of all, we know we cannot have representation from all over Kenya. The beauty of this is that the various people here represent diversity having come from five different regions of Kenya. Whereas we cannot have 47 people, the five have been evenly spread from over five diverse regions of Kenya. The issue of youth has also been looked at. Obviously, the other issue was determining their integrity which came pursuant to a memorandum that was used in terms of knowing if they were cleared by the Higher Education Loans Board (HELB) and did not owe them any amounts. It was very clear they had sorted out their issues with HELB. The EACC confirmed that the two are compliant and are not officials of any registered political party. I believe we are looking at two Kenyans who have been vetted. The Committee’s recommendations have clearly spelt out that they have no objection in recommending the House to approve the nomination of these two. I ask that we agree with the Committee. The EACC is an integral part of the realisation of the aspirations of Chapter Six of the Constitution. We know corruption and integrity issues are at the heart of derailing our development agenda. When these two Kenyans join the Commission, I hope that one of their responsibility would be to give fresh energy into that organisation, and look back at what it was initially set up to do. In my view, and I believe it was the view of many people at the beginning, this organisation was to be a catalyst, and not a body to perpetuate. It was supposed to catalyse the fight against corruption so that when that is sorted, people can go back to default and normal institutions that are supposed to fight theft and all other public institutions like the Director of Criminal Investigation (DCI) and others, could do their jobs. However, because of how badly we were doing, we needed these catalyst institutions to help people behave. This includes being ethical 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."
}