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"id": 1355320,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1355320/?format=api",
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"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Kinangop, JP",
"speaker_title": "Hon. Kwenya Thuku",
"speaker": {
"id": 13380,
"legal_name": "Zachary Kwenya Thuku",
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"content": " Thank you, Hon. Temporary Speaker, for giving me an opportunity to contribute to the debate on this Bill. I listened carefully as the Mover initiated the debate on this Bill. I support it with reservations. I am happy that the Leader of the Majority Party has acknowledged that there are some sections that need to be amended. During the Committee of the whole House, I will move the amendments that I am desirous of moving so that we can fine-tune and align this Bill to the facts on the ground. More often than not, we are conflicted, whether in our duties as Members of Parliament or with our brothers and sisters who work in public offices, especially those in human resource and procurement offices. For example, in human resource, candidates apply for jobs and one is required to interview them and pick the best candidate in terms of merit but it may chance that it is a relative to the human resource officer that has the requisite qualifications. In such a case, the issue of being conflicted should not deny that person opportunity to work in any public office just because their relatives are in that office. On the issue of procurement, I have taken time to understand the Public Procurement and Disposal Act, 2015. Public officers who take part in evaluation of tenders and other procurement issues take time to go through Form CR12 on registration of companies to find out who the real directors are. During the evaluation, the officers may innocently find out that company ‘A’ belongs to a relative. Coincidentally, that relative may be the only person who is qualified to do that job. What happens in such circumstances? My opinion is that we are over- legislating. This is because the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Act has set the threshold as to what needs to be done. Even in this House, like Hon. Junet has stated earlier on, Standing Order 90 has a way in which conflict of interest is dealt with. Once a Member of a Committee declares an interest, it does not stop them from carrying out their duties. It is allowed to pass. We do not want to pass a law that will give EACC a lot of fodder than is required. We must look at the merits and demerits of every law that is passed in this House. That way, we will not just legislate and give additional work to EACC, who are already over-burdened with workload and yet, we do not build their capacity in terms of budget and human resource. It is time we interrogated the kind of statutes that we pass here so that we do not over-legislate. Hon. Temporary Speaker, allow me to read the definition of a “relative” as contained in the Bill: “Relative” means a person who is related to a public officer by birth, marriage, common law, partnership, adoption or affinity and includes a public officer’s father, mother, son, daughter, brother, sister, uncle, aunt, great aunt, great uncle, first cousin, nephew, niece, husband, wife, grandfather, grandmother…’ The list is endless. It is dangerous for this House to pass such a law without considering the subject matter. This is a Bill that we need to revisit before we pass it. If we pass it as it is, we may make it almost impossible for any of our relatives or relatives of people in public service to engage with the Government in any way. Let me pose a question to this House. In the example that was given by Hon. Junet of the Leader of the Majority Party being the owner of a butchery and he is the only person with quality meat that can be sold anywhere in this country, but he cannot sell it to Parliament by virtue of the office he holds. What happens in such an instance? We have not looked at the fact that, as much as there is conflict of interest given that he is a public officer, he has the requisite skills, goods and services that are required to be consumed. Therefore, we must look at this 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."
}