Entry Instance

HTTP 200 OK
Allow: GET, PUT, PATCH, DELETE, HEAD, OPTIONS
Content-Type: application/json
Vary: Accept

{
    "id": 1361629,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1361629/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 1535,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Dr. Muthomi Thiankolu",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "Luckily, today while cross-examining her own legal man Dickson Munene Nkanata, we showed the Senate through Section 30 of the County Government Act that it is immaterial that the governor did not personally commit the acts in question because that section says the governor is irresponsible for those acts. Those are not my words. The section we read says, “The governor shall be accountable.” The words used in the statutes are “The Governor shall be accountable”. Why this defence cannot hold is you will be setting a very dangerous precedent. In fact, you will have guillotined and killed Chapter Six and Article 181 of the Constitution. Not anyone who walks in our villages and streets of our cities needs to be very knowledgeable to know senior state officers invariably act by instructing someone else. You rarely ever find a Governor or a President directly doing something personally yet our Constitution says they are accountable to Parliament. In the case of the national Government, they are accountable to the county assembly. Those are the words of the law. Mr. Speaker, Sir, if you were to uphold this defence, it would mean no one would ever be impeached because all you need to do is Act through others. Luckily, we also cited another law for you that expressively speaks to acting through others. In short, all we are trying to tell you is that there is no valid defence to the charges against Governor Kawira Mwangaza. What she has done, which is what she has done all along is to tell you, “It was not me”. Even if she was caught on camera “It wasn’t me.” Even if she was caught in various places, “It wasn’t me” In Shaggy’s song, the man engaging in hunky punky is caught in the bathroom, on the sofa and in other places and is all recorded, but his persistent reply was “It wasn’t me.” We have shown you that defence is not available as a matter of plain law, but it is not also available as a matter of principle. I propose to leave it at that point and share the remaining minutes with my learned colleague, Mr. Jacob Muvengei Ngwele, who will take you to the specifics of what is the case we brought before you, the response to that case, what the admissions the Governor made and the County Assembly. When all that is done, we shall beseech you in the name of God, whether it is the Christian God or the God of the Nyambene and Mt. Kenya Hills that the Ameru worshipped before the current civilization, that the time to stop this madness in Meru has come. If we have not proved or satisfied you, the Governor is a bishop in the Holy Book. In the event that we have not persuaded you on the evidence, and I hope we have done so, wherever the truth lies, there is an unsustainable crisis in Meru. Even if you must jettison one person to save the ship called Meru County with one million inhabitants, your act is still justifiable even in the Holy Book. I now cede the Floor to Mr. Jacob Ngwele."
}