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{
"id": 1614039,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1614039/?format=api",
"text_counter": 143,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Tharaka, UDA",
"speaker_title": "Hon. George Murugara",
"speaker": null,
"content": "Monday. As a result, the Committee had to burn the midnight oil and spent the entire day evaluating the report of the Selection Panel and conducting hearings physically. All the seven nominees appeared before the Committee and were vetted. Allow me, Hon. Speaker, to thank Members of the Departmental Committee on Justice and Legal Affairs, all of them singularly and collectively, including the Vice-Chair, Hon. Mwengi Mutuse and Senior Counsel Otiende Amollo, who are here. I saw Hon. Daudi Mohammed of Wajir East, Hon. John Makali of Kanduyi, Hon. Stephen Mogaka of West Mugirango and the rest. All of them, named in the Report, played a key role in vetting the nominees and making the elaborate Report that was tendered to this House yesterday. It is a bit long, but I hope every Member has had a chance to read it and to acquaint themselves with it so as to know the reasons why the Committee recommended that we approve the seven nominees. The Report begins with the foreword by the Chairpersons, in which observations are made, including compliance with the Constitution, reasons why vetting was done on a Saturday and the position the Committee took regarding the court order that stopped vetting which had been scheduled for 26th May 2025. It appeared, on the face of it, that the courts were injuncting Parliament from carrying its duty. We took exception to that and pointed out that Parliament, and Speakers have previously ruled, cannot be injuncted from discharging its constitutional mandate. Be that as it may, this is a House of laws. We obeyed the law as it was. Before we could evaluate the court order, we had to obey it first. Fortunately, the judge realised the mistake he made and on Thursday, and he varied the order to what it is today. Chapter one, which is the preface on the establishment of the Committee, is self- speaking. Chapter two, which is on the background information of the Committee and the nominees, is also self-speaking. I will not go into the details for purposes of saving time. Chapter three is on the memoranda received from the public on the suitability of the nominees. We need to speak on this because various issues were raised by several members of the public. We did not capture supporting memoranda. We received quite a huge amount of paperwork in the form of supporting affidavits. However, since we are not required to consider them, we did not capture them. Under the Public Appointments (Parliamentary Approval) Act, we are only required to consider objections. The House can see what was said about each nominee. I will be commenting on the objections shortly. Chapter four is on approval hearings. We have tried to capture the hearings almost verbatim. We have captured what each nominee presented to us, right from their opening statements. They gave a history of themselves. We also looked at their academic backgrounds, experience in various fields and suitability, which are a requirement of the law. We looked at all these and it is captured in Chapter Four of the Report. Chapter Four is quite lengthy because I repeat, it captures almost verbatim what the nominees had to say including their responses to the objections. Chapter Five which is very important is on our observations regarding the nominees. Committee observations on the nominees, we have observed whatever it is we took of interest and importance, and we have set it in Chapter Five on each of these nominees. Chapter Six is actually on our recommendations. Having evaluated these nominees, we did not hesitate to recommend that each of them be approved."
}