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{
    "id": 1399566,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1399566/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 270,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Thang’wa",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "(g) members of the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission and staff of the Commission holding the rank of deputy director and above.” I have no problem with that. However, if you read Section 31A (3), it says- “The committee of the Senate responsible for the ethics of Members is the responsible Commission for Senators.” If you read that, a whole Senate that is mandated to oversight Cabinet Secretaries has only been reduced to oversight themselves. That is why they appear before the committees of the House. We cannot ask them when it comes to matters of conflict of interest. That is where everything begins. I will bring in an amendment. Instead of saying; the “Committee of the National Assembly”, we will be saying, the “Committee of Parliament”. This is so that either House, that is the National Assembly and the Senate can check on matters conflict of interest to the Cabinet, Members of Parliament (MPs), each House will take care of their Members, the Director of Public Prosecution (DPP), Secretary to the Cabinet, the members of Judicial Service Commission (JSC), members of the commission in the independent offices and members of Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC). Can you imagine that this House was only mandated to check themselves? This clause will call this whole Senate to first of all, pause everything that we are doing and discuss this issue. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, the other day the EACC gave a report. The report was on the bribery index. They mentioned some of the counties that bribe as much money. They talked about Nyamira County which on average, somebody is bribing Kshs163,000 to get employment. Yet you see, on the Floor of this House, somebody said that they gave Kshs800,000 to get an opportunity to work for the County of Kisii and that person was also from Nyamira. What I am trying to say is that these bodies that we are giving this mandate can give us statistics and tell us people are bribing in this county and yet, they are not doing anything. They are just acting - I am talking about EACC - as just an opinion poll kind of commission. A commission that will just come and tell us; the people of this county are known to be bribing and yet, they have not arrested or taken anybody to court or even issued warnings, if the law permits that. Yet, as a Senate, we are told that we should not call them and ask them questions. The National Transport and Safety Authority (NTSA) was among the Government bodies that are accepting huge amounts of bribes. They were number one followed by the Judiciary and county governments in that order. County governments are not in Section 31(a)(3). As the Senate, we are taking away our mandate to check the county governments when it comes to conflict of interest. Who are they giving this mandate? The committee of the county assembly responsible for the ethics of members is a responsible commission for County Executive Committees Members (CECM), MCAs and the members of the secretary of respective county public service board. No one has been given an opportunity to oversight governors. Governors are free to do whatever they want to if this Bill was to pass the way it is. They have not been mentioned anywhere, even when it comes to the MCAs. Once we get to the Third"
}