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{
"id": 1461049,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1461049/?format=api",
"text_counter": 207,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Sen. Orwoba",
"speaker_title": "",
"speaker": null,
"content": "Assembly, and particularly to the Committee that is dealing with the vetting of the Cabinet Secretaries. The Standing Committee on Finance and Budget of this House has done an impeccable job. There was a huge pool of candidates or applicants who wanted to be seconded to become Commissioners of the SRC through the Senate. The Committee took their time, vetted all the applicants, and even scored them. Of the two nominees that are being presented in this House; the lady, Ms. Lynette Washiali, if I am not wrong, scored 74 per cent as a mean score, and Mr. Mohammed Aden, scored 70.29 per cent. I would like to speak on the transparency of this process within the Committee. In the interest of positive criticism, what we can maybe add on in the National Assembly in terms of the vetting of the Cabinet Secretaries is to have a more transparent process. Perhaps, we could see some of the scores they are giving the Cabinet nominees, so that we can say that, indeed, this person either performed poorly or did not perform at all, as we have seen with the nominees of this Committee. Madam Temporary Speaker, as we send these two nominees to represent and ensure that they protect the interests of the counties in the SRC, it is important that a lot of sensitization is done on what the mandate of the Commission is. People associate the SRC with benefits, particularly those of legislators or Members of Parliament (MPs). It is imperative that in their working and operating procedures, committees within SRC that work on different mandates should make Kenyans to understand that it is the same SRC that has a structured system to send a representative to deal with the issue of the wage bill, the legal and policy frameworks, the job evaluation and the salary structures that we have, not only within the National Assembly and the Senate, but also in public service and all other sectors down to the devolved institutions. Madam Temporary Speaker, I commend the Members of the Committee. The Mover of the Bill has stated that there are many unnecessary bureaucratic processes that we put in when we are vetting either commissioners or members of the public service. As much as we are making fun of this area, we really need to look into it. During the vetting of one of the Cabinet nominees in the National Assembly, I heard some complaints from the Committee on how the recruitment of the Kenya Defence Forces (KDF) soldiers is still outdated, such that they are still asking for physical measures of certain body parts and things like that. Madam Temporary Speaker, I think that is the point Sen. Boni Khalwale was trying to say; that in the interest of improving the efficiency and our work as public servants and leaders who are there to make sure that there's transparency and checks and balances, maybe we need to question ourselves as to why we are asking for certain information, if that information is not necessarily being used for the interests of the public. As Sen. (Dr.) Khalwale said, what was their intended purpose when they ask someone about their wealth? I believe, when that particular question was structured, the intended purpose was, first of all, to declare, so that those who are watching you can check if you are stealing any monies from the public coffers. We also need to sensitise the public that, perhaps, we are asking, so that we can go to their Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) Portal to see what percentage of that is remitted as taxes, since we have seen many Cabinet nominees increasing their wealth with over Kshs100 million. Personally, my wealth has gone down within this year. The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposes only. Acertified version of this Report can be obtained from the Director, Hansard and Audio Services, Senate."
}