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{
    "id": 155598,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/155598/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 525,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Mrs. Shabesh",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 377,
        "legal_name": "Rachel Wambui Shebesh",
        "slug": "rachel-shebesh"
    },
    "content": "Thank you, Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, for giving me this opportunity. I want to contribute quickly and briefly so as to allow other Members to also contribute. I want to start by supporting this Report by the Departmental Committee on Finance, Planning and Trade and the Budget Committee mainly because I believe that the work done by the Parliamentary Committees should be respected by the Members of this House. I believe that Members who sit in Committees to look into serious issues do not do it in vain. I am, therefore, supporting it partly because these are two Committees that are highly respected in this House. The second reason why I support this Report is because we must stop personalizing issues. For me, it is not the integrity of the Minister that should be held into account but the integrity of the institution of the Treasury. That must be clear. We are dealing with a Treasury that Kenyans do not trust. That is a crisis that the Government must take seriously. The Minister must, therefore, in my opinion, following the recommendations of the Committee, overhaul the Treasury, especially those who are found to have been part of the process of bringing the Supplementary Budget to this House. Why do I say this? This is because there are only two Ministries that have executive powers; that is the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Local Government. I do not think they were given those powers in the Constitution very lightly. It was because of the seriousness that their work entails. Therefore, there must be responsibility that comes with the executive powers. We may not look today at the personality of the Minister but that is the reason why those Ministries are critical in appointment. You must make sure that when you are appointed to lead any of these two Ministries, either the Ministry of Finance or the Ministry of Local Government, where you exercise some form of executive powers, then you must be ready to take responsibility. For the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Finance to admit that he was not aware of that kind of manipulation of figures, that raises the question about who really is in charge of the Treasury. Is it the Minister or the technocrats who run that Ministry? It is dangerous for us, as a country, to have technocrats running this country and keeping Ministers unaware of what is really going on. This kind of fraud would happen in Ministries where critical lives could be lost. I want to give an example. If this had happened in the Ministry of Medical Services and a certain drug, that must go through some tests was brought into this country and the Minister was not made aware that probably the drug was not put under the necessary tests, he might not realize that he was sabotaged by his juniors. We must take responsibility of our Ministries. If there is any sabotage within the Civil Service, those concerned, must, without any hesitation, be"
}