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{
    "id": 1570693,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1570693/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 261,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Kikuyu, UDA",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Kimani Ichung’wah",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": " Very good. Thank you, Hon. Deputy Speaker. It is good that I elicited that information to know that I was not congratulating the Committee in vain. I would implore Hon. Wangwe to finalise the report and bring it to the House Business Committee. We shall prioritise it for consideration, so that we can get to know who the COVID billionaires are. People who took advantage of a very unfortunate situation as the COVID-19 Pandemic in 2019/2020, to steal from public coffers. The KEMSA became synonymous not with the supply of drugs and vital things for the well-being of the people of Kenya, but with scandals and COVID billionaires. People who became billionaires overnight. We must get to the bottom of all those COVID billionaires, whether it was those who were supplying masks and fake respirators and tubes that we had at that time. I pray that this Committee will bring that report very soon, as the Chairman has committed. I was, however, saying that it is good to push all our public accounts committees, whether it is those in charge of investments, those reviewing the accounts of our parastatals or the Public Accounts Committee itself that reviews Government accounts, to ensure that they bring all their reports promptly so that we can arrest the cancer of graft in our country on a timely basis. We were just discussing earlier when Hon. Tongoyo tabled his interim statement on the fake abduction, as has been said, of Hon. Koimburi. We were congratulating the police for their swiftness. The House should learn from the police on the swiftness of acting at the right time. When people steal from public coffers, you allow time, people tend to forget. As Kenyans, we have a very short memory, or we get excited by new things and forget the old. That is why the corrupt in this country know that they can get away with anything. All you need is to buy time. Kenyans forget. That is why the COVID billionaires have been living in luxury over the last three or four years. They assume that Kenyans have forgotten. Many of them used their stolen resources in the last elections. Some are now elected governors. Others are Members of Parliament. I do not know whether any of us here was involved. The Chairman will tell us when he tables the report. I said that to encourage Hon. Wangwe and Hon. Wamboka's committees. I know they are diligent. I must congratulate Hon. Wamboka, who, being a first-time Member of Parliament, is serving with zeal and diligence as the Chairman of a Committee. I can see he is following in my footsteps. I was a Vice-Chair of the Public Investments Committee in my first term as a Member of Parliament. I moved on to become the Chairman of a committee in my second term. Therefore, this is to encourage you to lead your committees and ensure that all these accounts are reviewed on a timely basis, and you table reports before the House. It is not enough to just review these accounts. The more important thing is to bring reports to this House that we can adopt and then follow up, through our Committee of 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."
}