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{
    "id": 1355397,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1355397/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 171,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Gatanga, UDA",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Wakili Edward Muriu",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "You cannot do all sorts of incrimination. In America, that is called the “fifth amendment.” You have a right to shut up and not give any evidence and let the investigator dig the evidence they have as opposed to giving information to an investigator. Two, the same investigator – the EACC – has a history of being used by different regimes as a puppet. They are weaponised. If, for example, as a civil servant or a CEO you are not supposed to serve in a certain position, the EACC will be sent to you and they will tell you that they are investigating you on one or two things. However, if you happen to resign, that investigation will come to a dead end. Therefore, the EACC is the wrong body to be a repository of this kind of information. Clause 19 bars the participation of public officers in business. That is unconstitutional because it is against Articles 27, 40 and 43 of the Constitution. Some of us left lucrative private practice where we had a plethora of clients. We decided to join Parliament to serve this country as a sign of patriotism. The moment you say that I should shut my business whereas I am not a permanent and pensionable employee… I am only here for a season. I have come here to serve my country as much as I can then go back to my calling as a lawyer. That provision will affect engineers, doctors and businessmen in this House. Therefore, to propose to kill their business in the name of conflict of interest is like killing a fly with a sledge hammer. Clauses 38 all the way to Clause 43 introduce an animal called “the blind trust”. What does it propose? It proposes that the moment you join the public service, you sell all your assets and give them to a blind trust. I have practised commercial law for the last 28 years and I have never come across an item in law called “blind trust.” That has been introduced in this Bill. Therefore, it is my humble submission that despite the fact that the Bill is well intended in terms of its spirit, some of its clauses are foreign and repugnant to our culture and existing laws. I support the Bill. It is in the right direction but it is wrong in wording. Give us the opportunity to go back to the committee to have it amended and cleaned up. Thank you."
}