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{
    "id": 1211416,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1211416/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 126,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Ugunja, UDA",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Opiyo Wandayi",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": " Hon. Deputy Speaker, this is such an important Motion that I would wish Members are allowed to contribute to because it concerns their welfare. Before putting the Question, let us be careful about it. This is a critical matter and it only happens once in a term of Parliament perhaps. At the outset, I have no issue with the appointment of Hon. Johnston Muthama to the Commission. He has been our colleague here in the past, both in the 11th and 12th Parliament and even as early as the 10th. He understands the issues that we are confronted with every other day as MPs. The PSC is one of those independent Commissions that are established by the Constitution and this particular Commission is charged with the responsibility specifically of looking into the welfare of Members, especially on the matter of services and facilities that Members need to undertake their mandate effectively and efficiently. It is a Commission that is so important to the functioning of this House and indeed the entire Parliament. It is a Commission that again incidentally is chaired by none other than the Hon. Speaker of the National Assembly. It has Commissioners who are sitting MPs. Incidentally, even those Commissioners who come from outside the House are former MPs. I do not know why but that is the kind of institution we have established. Apart from Hon. Muthama, we have Hon. Racheal Ameso, a Commissioner who was an MP representing Kakamega County in the 11th or 12th Parliament. So, it is a Commission comprising of legislators, past and present. It should be, therefore, a Commission that is very much cognizant of the issues that it needs to deal with to ensure that Members discharge their responsibilities effectively and efficiently. I will not talk much about the current Commission because it is still very new. However, there are issues with past Commissions that we must point out as Hon. Ichung’wah pointed out earlier. The Parliament towers; that monument you see there, has been in the process of being completed for the last 10 years. I remember the foundation was laid sometime in 2013 when I was a new Member of this House. Three Commissions down the road, the building is still unoccupied! Billions and billions of taxpayers’ money have gone down the drain if I may say so. I say this with authority because I happen to have examined reports concerning it when I chaired Public 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."
}