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{
    "id": 1521706,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1521706/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 266,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Oketch Gicheru",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "The abuse of office has come to the extent that this House has witnessed the creation of an independent institution called the EACC. We sit in these committees of the House every single day. Today I was in three committees. We look at the reports by the office of the Auditor General (AG). We find serious variances that have led to public loss of funds in counties. We pronounce ourselves in those committees and send them to the EACC. Two years later, no Government, even a single one, is held to account. What is that if it is not procuring EACC? What is that if it is not procuring the Director of Public Prosecution (DPP) in this country? What is that if it is not procuring the Directorate of Criminal Investigation (DCI)? The abuse of office is not just a simple issue of the backlog and the bottlenecks that we have with the investigations. It is intertwined with the public service, which has allowed public servants to make a humongous amount of money. We have made a country where people in Government have built a bad system where they are protecting themselves and do not allow taxes of this country to go back and serve our people. As a young person in this country who has sat in this House time without a number, I have listened to my elders and ranking Members in this House speak about the challenges of providing water, gas and medicine in this country. I know when I sit in the Finance and Budget Committee, that it is possible not to borrow money and provide these services to our people. We have the capacity raise taxes. However, the hemorrhage of those taxes and the lifestyle that our people see the politicians, the judges and the people in the executive live, merely one or two months after getting into office, is a pandemic in this country that we must confront through this Bill. I have never been happier about a committee that has sat together in a joint session and mediated the version of this Bill. I thank my brothers and sisters from the Senate and the National Assembly for the version they have come up with. They have done something unknowingly in dealing with the Ndegwa Commission Report that brought us this menace in our country. I hope that we can fast-track this particular Bill to come to this House. We need to agree on that mediated version, give it life and go further to make sure that we will champion its implementation outside the precincts of Parliament. We are leaders who have been elected by the confidence of people in this country and we have been given the mandate and trust. Madam Temporary Speaker, I dare say that I know that the President today is facing a lot of scathing attacks on the issue of taxation, high cost of living and on why he has entered deeper into the pockets of individuals who are getting salaries in this country. Madam Temporary Speakere, that is not the issue. The issue is that people have lost confidence and trust in the public service in this country. This is because of the lifestyle we have chosen to live and the services we have chosen not to give our people. Simply by being able to trade with Government and enrich ourselves as public servants and state officers who do not allow the taxes to go back to our people. It is possible that we can have high taxation as well as higher services to our people. It is possible in our generation. It is possible to restore the confidence of our people in governance in this country. The journey of that confidence of our people on the 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."
}