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{
    "id": 1341572,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1341572/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 175,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Kikuyu, UDA",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Kimani Ichung’wah",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "Commission to order that a state officer who is under investigation or one who is charged with corruption or economic crimes, be barred from accessing their office or exercising powers of that office where the public officer is likely to interfere in investigations in any way. This is particularly important. The most recent example is the matter between the Ministry of Water, Sanitation and Irrigation and the former Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Athi Water Services Board (AWSB). EACC is said to have written a letter to the Cabinet Secretary asking her to suspend the CEO the EACC was investigating. Without casting any aspersions on the Cabinet Secretary, it was reported in the media — and I am just saying this because it was reported in the media and I have not verified the veracity of what we have been watching in the media — that the Cabinet Secretary apparently wrote back to the EACC asking them to disclose the nature of the complaint and who the complainant is. From where I sit, I wondered: The EACC is an independent constitutional Commission that investigates anybody and everybody, including Cabinet Secretaries and, therefore, there is no Cabinet Secretary who can pretend to have powers to direct EACC or to ask them to adduce information as to what they are investigating and who the complainant is. The EACC has the power to investigate anything touching on the integrity of public officers and those charged with public office. Cabinet Secretaries and other senior government officers must never imagine that they can write to EACC and ask them to disclose who the complainant is before they act. EACC does not need to have a complainant. They should be able to move on their motion and investigate any matter, anybody and everybody, including the Leader of the Majority Party and Cabinet Secretaries themselves. The President has been very emphatic, and all Cabinet Secretaries must be seen to be in tandem with what the President says on matters touching on corruption. The President cannot be saying mambo ni matatu on issues bordering on corruption, and Cabinet Secretaries are speaking a different language. Worst of all, speaking a different language to constitutional offices charged with dealing with corruption matters. We are often tempted to speak for Cabinet Secretaries, especially if they come from our background. I have said not more than once, from where I stand in this House, on matters advancing Government policy in the House as Leader of the Majority Party, I will do all I can to advance Government policy on behalf of even the Cabinet Secretaries. But on matters touching on accountability in Government and transparency in how you conduct yourself while in office as a Cabinet Secretary or as a state officer, there shall be no compromise, and I shall never stand here to defend any Cabinet Secretary, whether from my community, my brother or my sister. When we gave you work as a Cabinet Secretary, you must work for the people of Kenya. Do not work for the people from your backyard. Do not work to protect officers because they come from your backyard. Work for services to be delivered to the people of Kenya who have put you in that office. I needed to say that because these amendments are speaking to that. The law will now be amended to allow EACC — while investigating any public officer, including a Cabinet Secretary, leave alone those who are subordinate to Cabinet Secretaries — to go to court and get orders to bar an officer from accessing office so that they do not interfere with evidence and use their time and space in that office to cover up for their theft of public resources. If we are to realise this mambo ni matatu and take people to jail over corruption, we must make sure that they are also not able to use their offices to cover up for their theft. We have spoken at length about State capture. State capture pervades because people are in Government and have the means to steal and then cover up for that theft. It now must be very difficult for State officers to steal from the people and use the same offices to cover themselves up. I speak that with a lot of passion because I truly believe in that mantra of mambo ni matatu ."
}