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{
    "id": 1400475,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1400475/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 163,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Omogeni",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13219,
        "legal_name": "Erick Okong'o Mogeni",
        "slug": "erick-okongo-mogeni"
    },
    "content": "this money was stolen to buy properties in Karen; people are putting up maisonettes with lifts in their houses and no action has been taken. You know, EACC is chaired by my good friend, Bishop Oginde, a man I hold in high esteem and real respect. How are you going to build confidence in our governors if you rate a county as being the leading in corruption, and yet, you are taking no action to apprehend the suspects or those who are engaged in corruption? These are the people who, this afternoon, we are going to pass the National Rating Bill and place this money under their control. I can see there is a good effort in this Bill to ensure that we discourage manual collection of these rates. We are saying, they take the money to the bank or pay the money electronically. However, there is another clause that says a CECM can gazette another method of collection. That is where you will create those T-junctions we are talking about. This afternoon, I speak and appeal to my President that unless we tackle corruption at our counties and make corruption extremely painful, our people will continue suffering. Before the Committee of Sen. Osotsi, there was a situation where, Kshs110 million was sent to the County Government of Nyamira to build 300 bed capacity emergency Covid-19 response hospital. We were horrified when the Governor appeared and said that they decided to divert this money to other purposes. This is contrary to the Public Finance Management (PFM) Act. Madam Temporary Speaker, we were horrified that for mortgages in Nyamira, a cabinet sits and decides to dish out money. There is no security at all, no charge is registered and no format of how to recover this money, yet, this is public money. It is like a cabinet sits and says, today, they are giving a governor Kshs20 million and after three weeks, he comes and says that he wants a top-up. You are even given minutes saying that they have given the Governor a top-up of Kshs3 million. We should not allow this. As Senators, we must retreat and find a way of dealing with the corruption we are seeing in our counties. We cannot place our trust in Members of County Assemblies (MCAs). When we asked the Public Accounts Committee of Nyamira County whether they have ever done any report of how money is spent in Nyamira, they said that they have never tabled any report. So, they were just seeing these things when they appeared before the Sen. Osotsi-led Committee in the Senate. There is a big gap on how we can protect the public resources. The Bill is very good. I like the approach on public participation that, for once, we are recognising that the people who reside in counties may not be fluent in either English of Kiswahili. We are saying that there will be serious campaigns in our local FM stations and radio shows to ensure that before you make a decision on what you will be charging people who own properties in our urban centres, they have an input. That is very progressive. However, the elephant in the room is how to protect these resources. I must also commend the drafters of this Bill. Initially, I was worried that we may 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."
}