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{
    "id": 1355297,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1355297/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 71,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Kikuyu, UDA",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Kimani Ichung’wah",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "I invite you to be present even during the Third Reading stage as we debate the Conflict of Interest Bill, 2023 so that we make legislation for posterity. It will ensure that in the future, whether it will be the current administration or the one that will come after it, no public officer will ever use his or her access to power and public office to advance selfish business interests. As I said, it is not a coincidence that the most affluent or wealthy people in this country, in one way or another, are in political leadership or related to those who are in political leadership or have some affiliation of whatever nature with those who are in political leadership. I always refer to the administrations that I have seen as a parliamentarian and an adult. Hon. Junet and I were children during the Moi or Nyayo regime. However, we were grown-ups during President Kibaki’s regime. We saw what he did to make our economy better. We were parliamentarians during the Jubilee regime under retired President Uhuru Kenyatta. We saw that state capture can damage a country for good. Today, we are paying the price of the excesses perpetuated through state capture during the Jubilee administration under retired President Uhuru Kenyatta. This morning, I heard a very eloquent presentation by some of our political leaders on what they called ‘dossier.’ However, when I listened to them, I heard the protection of state capture of yester-years. I heard a lot of hot air and political propaganda cleverly designed to protect state capture of the last regime. The most prevalent discussion you will find in any restaurant, shopping centre or where you find people gathered today is the cost of fuel or how terrible the economy is. Many of us in political leadership are never honest enough with Kenyans to tell them that the problems that we are dealing with today are not a creation of the last nine or 12 months of the Kenya Kwanza Government, but a creation of state capture and conflict of interest of the previous regime and past regimes in this country. They used access to power to create an environment that was good for their banking businesses. They used consumer subsidies in the pretext of safeguarding consumers, but at the great expense of our economy and in advancing the private interest of oil marketers and those in the oil marketing business. They are known in this country. The way to deal with these issues is not to shout about corruption or state capture. I will sit throughout this debate to see how many of us here today will rise to advance state capture and conflict of interest of public officers in public offices. I say this with due respect to all of us because we are also State officers. It is good because many of us are very diligent. Even those who joined Parliament when Members of Parliament were State officers and patrons of their respective National Government Constituencies Development Fund (NG-CDF) ensured that there was proper oversight when they sat in those committees."
}