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{
"id": 1400518,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1400518/?format=api",
"text_counter": 206,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Sen. Maanzo",
"speaker_title": "",
"speaker": {
"id": 13589,
"legal_name": "Maanzo Daniel Kitonga",
"slug": "maanzo-daniel-kitonga"
},
"content": "Therefore, if we are making an unconstitutional law, which ends up being discriminatory, then we are making a law that the courts will easily find to be unconstitutional, even when there are moving suo motto without being moved by Sen. Omtatah, any other Senator or any other Kenyan. Therefore, we have to make a law, which is within the Constitution. When you come to the tribunal, there are many other laws which compare as tribunals. The Cooperatives Act and the Sacco Regulations Act have tribunals where a magistrate sits and the magistrate is aided by experts in that area. Here, you have a tribunal, which is unconstitutional with a membership of 18 people. Even the best practices of the world has a maximum of 9 members. Even the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) has a maximum. So, a membership of seven members for a tribunal will make sense. As a Senate, we need to rise to the occasion and agree to amend this Act thoroughly, first of all, for the benefit of devolution, and secondly, for the benefit of the country. When you raise this money, some counties have tried, they have come up with pay bill numbers. Counties such as Machakos and Makueni have done that. Every other payment to the county is made through a pay bill number. You can then collect monies and manage them in a better way. Madam Temporary Speaker, many times when you send people to the market to collect cash from traders, how truthful are they? Even when you use receipts, some of them will even print extra receipts, raise money and go home with it. In the evening, they surrender little to the county. The process of banking that money in cash takes a very honest person. When it comes to corruption, the nature of human beings has become worse than Satan. If you want to check corruption, beginning from the national Government to the county governments, the EACC has a bigger job to do. It should be strengthened enough, not guided from a corner and not malicious. This is because most of its prosecutions go for over 10 years and its investigations or by the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) acquit people on a no-case-to- answer, under Section 210, before they are even put on defence. The whole trial against a governor, former governor or a Government official ends up being a charade or a political witch-hunt. Madam Temporary Speaker, we have to draw the lines and EACC has to be very independent. The prosecuting bodies, as required by the Constitution, have to be independent so that you do not end up with a sham prosecution and waste Government resources. At least, there must be a station of EACC in every county where members of public can write anonymous letters and give evidence on who is corrupt for further investigations. We need to deal with corruption in the counties because some of it is done without the knowledge of the governors. Due to perpetual successions, you will find a governor inheriting pending bills that are corruptly made, unconstitutional, and were for activities not meant for the county. You have a former governor abandoning pending bills of illegal activities to an incoming governor on the basis 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."
}