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"id": 1402616,
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"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Sen. Cherarkey",
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"legal_name": "Cherarkey K Samson",
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"content": "Mr. Speaker Sir, you have been a governor, while Sen. Sifuna is a Member of the County Public Accounts Committee, as I am. We know that it is hard to have a county assembly clerk who has survived in the seat for a long time, unless that clerk is a unique creature. This is because the threshold for removing the clerk is low. On the issue of CECM, as a governor, you need stability to ensure that your CECMs are not intimidated. Several county executives, chief officers and directors in various departments within the county structure live in fear of being undermined or targeted politically. You know that there is a lot of political witch-hunt in these offices. For you to recall a Member of Parliament through the right of recall, is not as easy as many people want to imagine. Senior learned friends, Sen. Faki and Sen. Maanzo, will state that it is a herculean task. When Sen. (Dr.) Mwaura, the current Government Spokesman, Sen. Omanga alias Mama Miradi, the late Sen. Prengei - may his soul rest in peace - during the \"war\" - had been removed by the Jubilee Party under the arrangement of “handshake,” it was hard to remove them, yet they were nominated. You can imagine a recall of an elected person. Our stopgap measure is that we are so protected, so that we are not exposed as opposed to appointive positions. Mr. Speaker, Sir, that is the essence of this Bill. This is a straightforward amendment Bill. I want to ask my colleagues to ensure that we espouse the issues of national values and public power. Article 10 of the Constitution provides for the national values and principles applicable to State officers when exercising public power. These values and principles include good governance, integrity, transparency and accountability. One of the means of ensuring accountability in the exercise of public power is oversight of members of the executive by the legislature at both levels of government. If you may recall, the County Executive Committee Members (CECM) appear both to the county assemblies and the Senate. Therefore, as per Section 40, the County Governments (Amendment) Bill, 2023 provides for the procedure for the removal of the members of the county executive committee. However, cognizant that the office of the CECM is established by the Constitution and noting the adverse consequence of removal by impeachment of a member of a county executive, the threshold for voting for such a removal in the Act are low. Mr. Speaker, Sir, in this House we have a live example, a testimony by the name “miracle” Senator of Kiambu, Sen. Thang’wa. He knows this and I hope that he will have a chance to say something about this Bill because he is in the House. I know he has sponsored another Bill on the Impeachment Procedure Bill, so that he can give us the experience. The reason we are calling him a “miracle Senator” is because in his other life as CECM, he had fought many battles, including being removed during Governor Waititu’s era. If you remember, there was a governor in this county called Waititu “Baba Yao,” and you cannot miss him on the streets of Nairobi. He is a friendly man. He faced tribulations in that there were people at some point who had planned for Sen. Thang’wa not to be 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."
}