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"id": 1465113,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1465113/?format=api",
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"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Mr. Elisha Ongoya",
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"content": "(i) He is a two-time elected Member of County Assembly (MCA) in Meru County Assembly, carrying with him a measure of institutional memory. (ii) He is the immediate former Leader of Majority in the County Assembly of Meru, therefore exposed to the workings of that Assembly to a fairly high level. (iii) He was the Mover of the Impeachment Motion against the Governor that engaged us here in November, 2023. Therefore, he is best placed to explain to us the undertones and intricacies in those proceedings. (iv) He will give us a detailed account on how these Impeachment Motions are conceptualized and what is the thinking behind them. Mr. Speaker, Sir, distinguished Senators, at this juncture I can do no better than to take refuge in the voice of one of Africa's perhaps best literary experts, Chinua Achebe, whose voice continues to address us as follows- “If the alligator were to come from the water and tell us Mr. Crocodile is sick, who are we to doubt him?” Mr. Evans Mawira Kaaria will play that role today. Mr. Speaker, Sir, allow me to derive some lessons from the teachings of an American jurist by the name Robert Jackson. He is a jurist worth listening to or reading from for three reasons- First, he served as the Federal Attorney General of the United States of America. Secondly, he served as the prosecutor at Nuremberg; and thirdly, he served as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of America. No other jurist in America's or world history has met this combination of influential portfolios in his lifetime this far. On 1st April, 1940, at 10.00 a.m., Mr. Robert Jackson delivered a speech to the Second Annual Conference of the United States Attorneys, and he was reflecting on the power of prosecutors. I would juxtapose that with the power of impeachers. He observed- “The prosecutor has more control over life, liberty and reputation than any other person in America. His discretion is tremendous. While the prosecutor at his best is one of the most beneficent forces in our society, when he acts from malice or other base motives, he is one of the worst. If the prosecutor is obliged to choose his cases, it follows that he can choose his defendants and therein lies the most dangerous power of the prosecutor, that he will pick people that he thinks he should, rather than cases that need to be prosecuted. In such a case, it is not a question of discovering the commission of a crime and then looking for the man who has committed it. It is a question of picking the man, then searching the law books, and putting investigators to work to pin some offense on him. It is in this realm in which the prosecutor picks some person whom he dislikes or desires to embarrass, or selects some group of unpopular persons, and then looks for an offense, that the greatest danger of abuse of prosecuting power lies. It is here that law enforcement becomes personal, and the real crime becomes being unpopular with the predominant or governing group.” Distinguished Senators, I want to make it unequivocal here. The County Assembly of Meru has not discovered wrongs against Governor Kawira Mwangaza. It has discovered Hon. Kawira Mwangaza first, and has put anything and everything at play to say “what allegation we can we make against her to possibly embarrass her.” Allow me to make some general comments on the Impeachment Motion before you, conscious of the language of this House, but again mindful to speak the truth in its most manifest form. 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."
}