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"id": 1526093,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1526093/?format=api",
"text_counter": 142,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Kikuyu, UDA",
"speaker_title": "Hon. Kimani Ichung’wah",
"speaker": null,
"content": " Hon. Speaker, I beg your indulgence before we move to the next Order, which is the Committee of the whole House. As I indicated in the usual Thursday Statement on the business for next week, one of the Bills we are considering is the Public Audit (Amendment) Bill (National Assembly Bill No.4 of 2024) in the Committee of the whole House. This Bill was published in January 2024. We considered it in the Second Reading stage, debated it, after which the only pending issue was the Committee of the whole House. I wanted to give a Statement regarding a misinformation and disinformation campaign on this Bill, which was perpetuated by one of the media houses in the country. Many Members have seen it in the media. The campaign was perpetuated by one of the media houses. I do not know whether it was fake or real because the story that was initially circulated had the banner of one of the media houses, and was consequently picked up by the media. The story alleged that the National Assembly had drafted a Bill that was taking away the powers of the Auditor-General following the pronouncements that she had made in her normal audit reports, which are before this House and committees of this House. When that happened, the usual characters on social media picked it up and spiralled it out of control alleging very absurd and unconstitutional things that were being done by this Bill. I thought it was important that we set the record straight on the import of the Public Audit (Amendment) Bill, which was published in January 2024, not January 2025. Therefore, if anyone imagined, as they have been saying on the social media, that this Bill was targeting the Auditor-General because of her recent report, it is very far from the truth. It is that misinformation and disinformation campaign that saw this House suffer immensely in terms of reputation and interference with our work that led up to the events of 25th June 2024. In light of sensationalised, inaccurate, and false misleading reports that the Bill seeks to remove the Auditor-General from office, nothing could be further from the truth. The Office of the Auditor-General is an independent constitutional office whose tenure and independence are well protected under Article 229 of our Constitution. That is why even in my response on Twitter or X, I mentioned that there were certain unconstitutional things that cannot be done through an Act of Parliament. The Bill seeks to amend the Public Audit Act Cap 412B in order to align it with the Constitution following a declaration issued by the High Court in the case of Transparency International (TI) Kenya vs the Attorney-General and two others of 2018 Petition No.388 of 2016. The Transparency International Kenya case alleged that Sections 4(2), 8, 12, 17(1), 18, 27, 40, 42 and 70 of the Public Audit Act Cap 412B were unconstitutional. The court ruled on that the Bill sought to align or correct the unconstitutionality of the Act that had been passed in 2016 in the last Parliament. In the Transparency International Kenya case, the Petitioner filed a petition against the Attorney-General, the Auditor-General and the African Centre for Open Governance (AFRICOG) as first and second interested parties respectively. The Petitioner challenged the constitutional validity of Sections 4(2), 7(1)(g), 9, 12, 14, 17, 18(3), Part III, which was made up of Sections 25, 26, and 27, as well as Sections 40, 42, 68, 70 and 72 of the Public Audit Act Cap 412B. Justice Chacha Mwita held that Sections 4(2), 8, 12, 17(1), 18, 27, 40, 42 and 70 of the Public Audit Act Cap 412B were inconsistent with, in contravention of the Constitution, and were invalid. We came up with this Bill so that we could align the Public Audit Act with the High Court declarations. I have looked at the Report of the Departmental Committee on Finance and National Planning that was tabled and its proposed amendments to the Bill and I have not seen a proposal to remove the Auditor-General as the head of the national audit office. In any case, when the The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor."
}