Entry Instance

HTTP 200 OK
Allow: GET, PUT, PATCH, DELETE, HEAD, OPTIONS
Content-Type: application/json
Vary: Accept

{
    "id": 1513368,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1513368/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 419,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Tharaka, UDA",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. George Murugara",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "House with amendments. The Speakers of the two Houses formed a Mediation Committee, comprising nine Members each from the National Assembly and the Senate. When we convened, by virtue of being the Chairperson of the Departmental Committee on Justice and Legal Affairs I was selected as the Chairperson of the Mediation Committee while the Chairperson of the equivalent Committee in the Senate was selected the Vice-Chairperson. The selection was based on the fact that this is a National Assembly Bill. That is the brief information of the constitution of the Committee. Hon. Members, kindly read the detailed and elaborate Report. It solves most of the concerns that this House had. I confirm to the House that this mediated version of the Bill is in compliance with the requirements that this House put across, especially in disagreeing with the proposed amendments by the Senate. To a greater extent, the proposals by the Senate were put aside and the version of the National Assembly was adopted. This is what we are moving this morning. I wish to point out a few salient provisions which are of importance to the House. The first one is Clause 5, where administration of the Act was put under two authorities. The reporting authority is the one in charge of a public officer and the other one is the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC). The two authorities will enforce the Act. This is because we would not have done away with EACC due to Article 75 of the Constitution. I also wish to confirm that most of the provisions are in the Leadership and Integrity Act (Cap. 185C) of the laws of Kenya. We tried to harmonise to ensure that what is in the Act is what we include in this Bill and not anything extraneous as the original Bill had tried to do and as Senators had contemplated. I draw your attention to Clause 19. This is an important clause. It states that a public officer shall not be party to or a beneficiary of a contract for the supply of goods, works or services with his or her reporting entity. The proposal was that all public servants should never do any business with the government. However, we proposed an amendment to provide that you will only be stopped from doing business with your reporting entity. For example, if you work under the Parliamentary Service Commission, then you cannot do any business whatsoever with the Commission. That does not stop you from doing business with the Public Service Commission or any other entities to which you do not report. We tried to cure that conflict by introducing that provision so that nobody says that there is over curtailing of engagement with the government. I draw your attention to Clause 32 on the body that will be a responsible commission for a public officer for the purposes of the Act. We have set out the list of commissions. Clause 41 is on complaints and conduct of investigations. Clause 41(3) provides that a reporting authority and EACC shall not conduct concurrent investigations over the same complaint. This means that the reporting agency investigates. For EACC to come in, there must be a complaint to it and it will have to establish that the reporting entity is not investigating the matter. For all intents and purposes, investigations will be done by the reporting authority. In our case, it is the Parliamentary Service Commission. For the Executive, it is the Public Service Commission while the Judiciary has the Judicial Service Commission. Quickly, I will take you to the provisions of Clause 45, where there is a penalty. It is good to note what the penalty is on if you breach this Act. This is not different from what we have under the Leadership and Integrity Act. Therefore, if you offend this law and you are convicted, you are liable to a fine or a default prison term. Regulations will be made under Clause 50. This is very important because this is an Act of Parliament that flows from our Constitution. We now have to make regulations as a House. Those regulations will be made by the Attorney-General who will bring them to Parliament for approval through our Committee on Delegated Legislation."
}