HTTP 200 OK
Allow: GET, PUT, PATCH, DELETE, HEAD, OPTIONS
Content-Type: application/json
Vary: Accept
{
"id": 1197333,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1197333/?format=api",
"text_counter": 219,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Ugunja, ODM",
"speaker_title": "Hon. Opiyo Wandayi",
"speaker": null,
"content": "and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC). Subsequent to the reading of the list, the officers were asked to step aside. It is important to note that this was obviously in accordance with the requirements of Constitution, especially the stringent requirements of Chapter 6. If you read the Anti-Corruption and Economic Crimes Act, you will note that once a public or State officer has been charged with corruption or economic crimes, he or she shall be suspended with effect from the date of the charge until conclusion of the case. It is important that when you seek to occupy a public office as high as that of a Cabinet Secretary, you must, like Caesar’s wife, be beyond reproach. There can be no two ways about it. That is the basis upon which you will appreciate the fact that a minority of members of the Committee on Appointments wrote a dissenting opinion on two nominees, that is, Hon. Mithika Linturi and Hon. Aisha Jumwa. The Committee on Appointments did a rigorous job, with utmost objectivity. Indeed, there was no wasting of time in cases where we were in agreement. However, Hon. (Prof.) Kithure Kindiki, Hon. Kipchumba Murkomen and Hon. Aden Duale left us with no doubt whatsoever, that they were capable of exercising the mandates under the dockets to which they had been nominated. We unanimously approved their nominations or appointments. Hon. Speaker, on the matter of Hon. Mithika Linturi, if you go to the Report on Page 18, Paragraph 17, the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) stated that it had received adverse reports against some of the nominees. Hon. Franklin Mithika Linturi: there were allegations that he is in possession of a forged Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) certificate and a Bachelor of Commerce Degree from Marathwada University in India. The said certificate is what he used to register for the Bachelor of Laws Degree in the University of Nairobi. It is important to note that during the Committee’s proceedings, this question was put to Hon. Linturi and his answer was that his Bachelor of Laws Degree from the University of Nairobi had no issue whatsoever. Yet, according to the EACC, this is a matter which is still under active investigation. He contended that the only issue he had was his Master’s degree programme in Law at the University of Nairobi, which had been stopped under suspicious circumstances. Hon. Speaker, Hon. Linturi went further to inform the Committee that he was saddled with a plethora of cases, a litany of cases, numbering about 35. They had weighed him down so much that he wanted to forget about them and move on. Hon. Speaker, how will you move on when you have active cases against you in court? When we approve you to be a Cabinet Secretary (CS) with all these cases, how will you move on yet Kenyans expect you to go and serve them from the office you have been appointed? That was our difficulty with Hon. Mithika Linturi. In addition to this other matter of the university certificates, he had an issue of an attempted rape case which had been dropped. There is also an issue of forgery in terms of acquisition of certain loans. Hon. Speaker, all these put into context raised serious questions of integrity that in our view, as the minority, we felt could not allow Hon. Linturi to effectively perform the functions of the office of a CS, if appointed. On Hon. Aisha Jumwa, it is a matter of public notoriety that up to this afternoon, she is still facing an active case of murder. Hon. Speaker, you will recall, for sure, because we live in this country, that some few years ago, none other than the CS for National Treasury, Mr Henry Rotich, was charged with corruption related offences and upon being charged, he was made to step aside. Only Mr Rotich has stayed out of office since then until the end of the administration of His Excellency Uhuru Kenyatta. So, what logic would you then be applying when on one end, a person as senior as CS in charge of Treasury is being asked to step down and on the other end you are attempting to appoint somebody who is facing active murder charges in court to a public office?"
}