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{
    "id": 1371617,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1371617/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 135,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Mr. Elisha Ongoya",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "The law of evidence, which my learned colleague Dr. Muthomi Thiankolu has taught for many years at the university, presents that evidence is not counted, but weighed. Eventually, put this evidence on the weighing scale and come to a conscious conclusion. Can we in good conscience remove a fellow citizen from the high office of the Governor on the strength of the material presented before us? One may ask, where the evidence the Governor presented before the Senate was before the Assembly undertook the first impeachment process. The HANSARD of the Assembly will bear the Governor out that the Governor’s legal team went before the Assembly with this evidence and asked the Speaker of the Assembly to direct us on how to present the evidence before the house. The Speaker of the Assembly ruled that the legal team and the Governor were in parliamentary parlance ‘strangers’ and could not table material before the county assembly. Mr. Speaker, Sir, and hon. Senators, 2,400 years ago, that great Greek philosopher, Socrates, is documented to have prescribed the four essential attributes of anyone who sits in the position of a judge as you do today and tomorrow. He observed- “Four things belong to a judge; to hear courteously, to answer wisely, to consider soberly and to decide impartially.” Hon. Senators, today and tomorrow, in relation to the business that keeps us here, you sit as judges. The humble plea of the Governor of Meru County to this distinguished House is that you apply this four-part Socratic test. If you do that, she asks for no more favour. The chips will fall in their place and she will naturally be vindicated. The Governor has furnished evidentiary material before you in the nature of- (i) Her response; (ii) Affidavits in support of that response; (iii) An index of annexures which are documentary exhibits; and, (iv) Two flash disks with various video clips that will contextualise for you what the political atmosphere in Meru County is. Despite that political atmosphere, which is the reality in which this Governor operates, the Controller of Budget (CoB) report has indicated that this Governor leads a county that has a 71 per cent absorption of its development budget. Hon. Senators, you sit here oversighting many counties and you know better than I do, the degree efficiency one requires in this country to even achieve that fit. The latest Infotrak research, which is less than a week old, has ranked Governor Kawira Mwangaza among the top four performing governors in this country. That is the person that is presented before you and who has been treated to the descriptive epithets that the learned counsel for the Assembly have described just a few minutes ago. We had the privilege of following debate on the Motion on whether this House will go the Committee or Plenary way. We were persuaded by the following submissions by the Members of this Senate; “We want to know what is happening in Meru”. Evidence will show you what is happening in Meru County. When you look at the evidence presented before you by the County Assembly, I emphasize that because the burden of proving these charges is the burden of the County Assembly. This is because at the end of it all, this Senate has to make a finding whether the charges have been established or have been proved. The evidence by the Assembly The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Director, Hansard and AudioServices, Senate."
}