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{
    "id": 1310580,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1310580/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 1566,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Mr. Elisha Ongoya",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "conversations among yourselves. Ask yourself first, the Governor before you faces a charge of usurping the roles of other agencies in the county and doing the work of other functionaries in the county. The same Governor then faces other charges that require her to take responsibility for the acts and omissions of other functionaries in the county. Mr. Speaker, Sir, how will you reconcile your sense of logic to that case? When you retire in your private Chamber, kindly reconcile this for me because I am a career learner. The Governor is accused of making payments to county employees who are four in number. One of those county employees steps here and complains that he was paid. He told you that yesterday. Then you will be confronted with evidence that he is the one who went to court to obtain an order to compel the county government to pay him. That same person complaining. I have been struggling with whether I am a slow learner. However, I want you in good conscience to tell me whether if you sat in the shoes of this governor, how would you learn a lesson from that because she is a human being. She is not a perfect person. She can make mistakes, but she must be confronted by logical claims from which she can draw logical lessons to become a better leader. That is what we do in oversight institutions such as this. However, if you confront this Governor with these kinds of contradictions, how does she sit with her team and tell them that this is the programme of action on how we can become better. The same Governor is accused of disobeying a court order because that payment was delayed. The act of purging was the payment must be made. While at that, I am glad that in front of me, including you, Mr. Speaker, Sir, are hon. Members of the Senate of Kenya who have served as governors. I have a plea to them to please convey a message to other Members in your deliberations on how many cases the governor of a county, being them, was named as respondent. If for each of those cases, the governor was to be brought here and be impeached, how many governors would survive in this country? Is that even a sustainable way of oversighting counties? The office of governor is a standard respondent, so to speak in virtually all claims made against the county government. At the end of it all, as was the case in the case of the four petitioners in Meru, a specific officer of the county government was singled out and was told that it was his duty as the county secretary to ensure that these things are done. That he should go back and comply and then go to court again and inform them that he had complied. Shall we ignore that direction of the court? Mr. Speaker, Sir, my learned colleague, Dr. Muthomi Thiankolu has a legal philosophy called legal sophistry. According to him, this is a process where people make technical, legal arguments that technically make sense, but when you look at them substantively, they are unjust arguments. Sadly, he has advanced those arguments here today. We do not begrudge him. He is acting on his clients’ instructions. The Senate should act on instructions of the Constitution. Shall you buy into that legal sophistry or into the Constitution? Mr. Speaker, Sir, my sight is not very good. When my 30 minutes reach and it is shown, I beseech that my attention be drawn to it so that I manage my time better. I know I still have some time."
}