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{
    "id": 1496874,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1496874/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 96,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Cheruiyot",
    "speaker_title": "The Senate Majority Leader",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13165,
        "legal_name": "Aaron Kipkirui Cheruiyot",
        "slug": "aaron-cheruiyot"
    },
    "content": "enrolled and that there are people who sit in office, but find themselves not doing as much as they could. On the other hand, there are other Ministries that are understaffed. We do like you do in any organisation, rationalisation of ensuring that you deploy, move others from this arm to the others. Therefore, there were deliberate efforts that we promised the country that we were to take as the Legislature. Mr. Speaker, Sir, there is more that was supposed to be done by the Executive, which I want to believe that part of the statement that the President will be laying next week when he addresses the country here in Parliament is how that is being achieved. Moving on, this Bill is part of the public pronouncements and requests. Kenyans told us that if we do not keep an eye on how harambees and public fundraising appeals are done and administered, why they are being called in the first place, then they run the risk of being avenues through which money is laundered. They risk being avenues for looting public resources and those resources finding their way to our political ecosystem. There is nothing wrong with harambees. At some point, many of us in this House have requested for appeals for funds from communities and friends when we have a sick relative or have lost beloved one. Many of us in this House went to school through fundraising because that is a common thing we do in our villages. I do not think there is anything inherently wrong with harambees. I took time to listen to what we were being told at that particular time; you must establish a mechanism through which we keep track of people who make donations. You can also keep track of whether many of these appeals end up achieving the purpose for which they were sent out to do, in the first place. The second and most important thing about them is the fact that Kenyans insisted that there is need to greatly demonetize our politics. That is to reduce the influence of money in our politics. Harambees have been used as platforms for political mobilization. Many times, people consider the biggest donor or that particular individual to be the most fit to be a leader. People did not like that we state and public officers participate or sometimes even organize fundraisers. The thing they were telling us is that Sen. Faki instead of coming to fundraise for me at Shimo la Tewa, go to Parliament and legislate and make sure that the Universal Health Coverage (UHC) works, so that we are all able to access Government services in our public hospitals. We do not need to appeal for any fundraiser. We felt it was a fair request. I do not know whether it is easy to achieve it the way people tell us. However, by our presence in the harambees, citizens feel that we need to provide, first, justification. They were curiously asking how come the biggest donors in the fundraisers are mostly the political class, either as political aspirants or we in office and other state officers, Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) and members of boards and parastatals. Could there be a link between these funds and the many funds that get lost as reported by the Auditor- General? Yesterday Sen. Okiya Omtatah here talked about circumstantial evidence. You are in charge of goats and sheep. For example, they were 100, but later on, there are 90. They may ask, but you say that you do not know where 10 other goats have gone. However, they can tell the smell of goat meat coming from your mouth. What are they likely to conclude? What decision can they make with regard to that? 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."
}