Entry Instance

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

{
    "id": 1516646,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1516646/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 301,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Oketch Gicheru",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "Madam Temporary Speaker, all the Senators who came before me have emphasized the urgency and need to focus on legislative pieces that we bring to this House. However, I urge us that this House does not only look at legislative work. We are indeed a House of serious oversight oversighting 47 executives unlike the National Assembly that oversights one executive in this country. I urge the Committee that apart from prioritising the Bills that have been mentioned here, the role of oversight is a critical one. I hope that the Creative Economy Support Bill, 2024 that will support a number of young people in this country and open up Government support and resources to creatives in this country will be dealt with. Sen. Crystal Asige had also worked on it when we were with her in the Standing Committee of Trade Industrialization and Tourism where I had put this to make a case for business and commercial viability for creatives. There are a number of reports from respective Committees that came to the SBC that have not been dealt with. Some of them are so critical that yesterday we spent our time in Migori County with Finance and Budget Committee. You will receive their report. We realised that there are a lot of leakages in county and national Government resources to the extent that governors are voiding payments. The pending bills that we have seen rising are from voiding payments supposed to go to contractors. It is a problem that we are dealing with not only in the Finance and Budget Committee, but also in the County Public Investments and Special Funds Committee (CPISFC) where I sit. We have dealt with serious issues of pending bills, including over Kshs80 billion that is owed to different pension funds by different counties. I do not think that legislative pieces can go above those oversight issues. Yesterday, we realized something very sad when in Migori County. The report will come to the House. The governor insisted to us that he had paid Kshs1.1 billion in the last one year. That county has Kshs1.7 billion worth of pending bills. When we reached out to the COB to find out how much pending bills the governor had requisitioned for in the last one year because there is no way a governor would pay any money without requesting from the COB, we got that it was Kshs356 million. That means the Governor was telling the Committee that Kshs800 million worth of pending bills was either paid from his own pocket or did not requisition from the COB. His officer had the audacity of facing the Committee chaired by the abled former Senate Majority Whip, Sen. (Dr.) Khalwale, telling him that there is something called direct invoicing. Direct invoicing is where you send an invoice for suppliers to the COB and they give you money to pay those suppliers. However, when you get to Integrated Financial Management Information System (IFMIS), you do another invoicing. This Committee must prioritize those reports so that we deal with the issue of direct invoicing once and for all because that is where billions of money are being wasted by governors. Last weekend you saw the arrogance of governors who have taken so much money. In Kakamega, almost ten people died at a funeral. Governors have taken so much money from the public coffers that they are gagging Senators with goons so that they cannot oversight. 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."
}