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{
    "id": 1499743,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1499743/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 200,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Oketch Gicheru",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "Madam Temporary Speaker, when I eventually got the proforma, I was only able to raise Kshs800 after three months. I missed the first term because I could not raise money and I could not get through to the District Commissioner’s (DC) office. I joined the Friends School Kamusinga in second term when all my peers had gone through first term. Even then, it was through that act of having a proforma that I met one gentleman, Kennedy Okong’o, a lawyer in town, who wrote for me a cheque that enabled me go to school and become a Senator today in this House. Then today you are saying that for children like me who might not have been aggressive enough to get to a DC have to now go to a Cabinet Secretary or a CECM in the county to get a fundraising document in order to go and raise money. Where are we going as a country? Secondly, the area that people are facing a lot of problems in is in the medical issues. It might look simple for people here who have medical cover to think that medical issues in this country are easy. However, we have people in this country who are held as prisoners of hospitals because they cannot pay Kshs30,000 to get out of hospital. So, the moment you say that for them to raise money and leave hospitals or get medical attention, they should look for a CECM, form a committee and look for people who are well off, what shall we be doing to our country? Let us legislate the bad manners of politicians and let the EACC do its job. Madam Temporary Speaker, we also have another area that people do not understand - the burden of funerals in this country. As a political class, that is another area I have gotten many requests from. Someone has suffered and died in a hospital. Then they get imprisoned in mortuary and yet they are dead because their families cannot afford a fee of Kshs30,000 or Kshs10,000. Sometimes it is as little as Kshs5,000, but a family cannot get their person out of a mortuary. What is wrong with that person reaching out to a neighbour or to me who is a little bit privileged to help out and lend a hand to get this person out of a mortuary? These are real issues. They are not stories and they are in our communities. I know that the bone of contention that has been there is the issue of church and mosques. The political class have used pulpits and mosques to do political campaigns and make it difficult for the nourishment of our people in terms of spirituality. I do not support the idea that we should ban fundraising for churches or mosques. This is because the role that mosques and churches play in terms of the moral compass of our community, their value might not be quantifiable, but it is untold especially on the impact they have on our community. Let the churches self-regulate with regard to controlling the bad manners of a few politicians. It is not all of them, but a few politicians who have the bad manners of using those platforms for bravado and ego-setting for their political nourishment instead of their spiritual nourishment. Madam Temporary Speaker, we cannot ban the political class, the public officer, the state officer, the private individual or the corporate individual from raising money to grow churches, mosques and houses of worship; when these places help to contribute in supplementing the government's effort in building our moral capacity in this country. 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."
}