HTTP 200 OK
Allow: GET, PUT, PATCH, DELETE, HEAD, OPTIONS
Content-Type: application/json
Vary: Accept
{
"id": 1427595,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1427595/?format=api",
"text_counter": 319,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Sen. Cherarkey",
"speaker_title": "",
"speaker": {
"id": 13217,
"legal_name": "Cherarkey K Samson",
"slug": "cherarkey-k-samson"
},
"content": "money to ourselves, but the Joint Services and Parliamentary Service Commission found it wise to keep money at the Joint Services, as opposed to giving money to the Senate. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, we should be discussing getting financial autonomy of the Senate and the National Assembly. Let them be given their own money to decide on what they want to do with it. We cannot be held hostage because some Joint Services somewhere sits and decides to have more money, and they cannot even fix a lift. You can wait for a lift for 30 minutes. We are treating the symptoms and not the disease. Let the committees function optimally, so that we do not run around with Bills because we do not want people to run for seats. Let us fix and ensure that our committees function optimally. The Governor of Nakuru was a county assembly Speaker. You can imagine if we had told the current Governor of Nakuru not to become a Senator or Governor. She was first a county assembly Speaker, became a Senator here and now, she is the Governor. If she completes her 10 years, she can still come back and become a Senator. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, we need to be careful on how we make laws. I would like to ask colleagues that we make laws that can be used on our worst enemies. Let us go and compete politically and not put obstacles. We should not fear political competition. We are serving in trust in these seats we were elected in, on behalf of others. Even if you do not like somebody running against you because he is a governor, for your sake, you should prepare yourself politically. At the end of the day, we do not want to disfranchise voters. They should vote based on their belief on whom they want to elect. The other aspect is that governments exist in perpetuity. Someone might say that an audit query may arise from a health or human resources department or a project when that person was a governor. Every Government, both the counties and national, exist in perpetuity. Therefore, we should allow the counties to exist in perpetuity. The reason we passed the Assumption of Office Act is that in ending notes, one will hand over to the new governor assets and liabilities. In the Sessional Committees on County Public Accounts Committee (CPAC) and County Public Investment and Special Funds Committee (CPIC), we invite the sitting governors because governments exist in perpetuity. We grill and ask them questions, not based on their time in office, but on their predecessors' offices. If they are culpable, the cure is in the Constitution. I hope Sen. Chimera is taking notes. Under Article 226 (5), personal culpability can be cured. If a governor misuses resources, like a number of them have, you invoke Article 226 (5), and they are taken to court and charged. The Constitution envisages what the Senator is trying to achieve by saying, “if you are elected a governor, and you misuse and abuse your office, you will be held personally culpable.” We cannot subject a person to principle of double jeopardy. If for example, Governor X runs for the Senate seat and the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) are investigating him, when we come to Parliament and again subject him to the legal hurdle of not being elected, and there is presumption of innocence, we are subjecting those individuals to principle of double jeopardy. They are saying that it is because of corruption in counties. How do we cure that? We make sure the National Assembly appropriates more funds to EACC to fight corruption. We do not need to come with a prescriptive law to prevent governors to go and The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposes only.A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Director, Hansard and Audio Services,Senate."
}