Entry Instance

HTTP 200 OK
Allow: GET, PUT, PATCH, DELETE, HEAD, OPTIONS
Content-Type: application/json
Vary: Accept

{
    "id": 221716,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/221716/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 326,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Mr. Kimathi",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 237,
        "legal_name": "Viscount James Kimathi",
        "slug": "viscount-kimathi"
    },
    "content": "Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, what I am saying is that when a civil servant is barred from holding a public office for having misappropriated funds elsewhere, then at the end of the day he finds his way to Parliament--- Parliament is a much more superior public office than any other office on land because Parliament makes the law for the bureaucrats. That is, the Executive and the Judiciary. If you have a malpractice record and you have been named by any Committee of Parliament, you must be barred even from presenting your papers to any office either as a councillor or as a Member of Parliament on your way to the Cabinet. It has been the practice in the past that you must have a rich curriculum vitae (CV) of the many areas that you have stolen from, for you to be awarded a bigger job. That must come to an end. It has to be the importance and the neatness of your CV that should give you a job and not how many parastatals you have brought down. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, let us not talk of colonial Government, KANU or NARC Government. That party that wins and forms the Government is for Kenyans and, a Government is just a Government. The individuals who commit offences in any Government, whether it is called NARC, Sufuria, KANU, or if the person committed the offence during the colonial days and died, we should handcuff the grave. We must hold the individuals who loot our country responsible even if they are dead. A Government can be of any party that can garner the majority votes. For Example, Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I know you are in ODM(K) and you are thinking that you are going to beat us in the coming general elections, whereas we are also working hard to beat you. So, whether we form the next Government or ODM(K) forms it, we are all part of the population of this country and we should not exonerate any individual who steals. So, we would like the law to be explicit that if you steal from any Government, whatever it was called--- Actually, Mzee Kenyatta and Mr. Moi never had any governments. Mr. Kibaki does not also have any Government. They are just leaders of the Government at a particular time and there are officers in that Government. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, today you are the Deputy Speaker, and maybe in next Parliament, you will be the Speaker. The Government is continual. So, anybody who committed an offence under whatever Government, we will follow him or her and bar them from holding any public office. It is high time - I support minimum reforms - that we put things in order. This National Assembly should become supreme. When we summon somebody whether he is a billionaire and the poorest Member of Parliament is asking him questions, he or she would respect him because he or she has been constitutionally mandated by Kenyans to be a Member of Parliament. How sweet it is to be a Member of Parliament! I fought for my seat for 30 years and I feel so nice to be a Member of Parliament. It is not easy. It is so painful like the way a woman labours to give birth to a baby. I waited to be a Member of Parliament for 30 years and I am really committed to faithfully serving this country and my people. God help this Parliament. God help my colleagues. God help our country and long live Kenya. Thank you."
}