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"id": 231577,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/231577/?format=api",
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"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Mr. Angwenyi",
"speaker_title": "",
"speaker": {
"id": 326,
"legal_name": "Jimmy Nuru Ondieki Angwenyi",
"slug": "jimmy-angwenyi"
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"content": "Let this House rise up and look eyeball to eyeball at the issues affecting our people. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, if you go through this Report, and last year, I went through the previous year's Public Accounts (PAC) Report and I found out that money to the tune of Kshs9 billion had been siphoned off from national coffers. The culprits had been identified and recommendations were made and adopted by this House, but no action was taken! If we recovered the Kshs9 billion, we could provide employment to 1,000 people in every constituency in this country and give them a salary of Kshs10,000 per month. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, this House should be repulsed by what is happening! I heard my colleague say that, maybe, the people on the Government side should not be Members of the Committee. But some of these recommendations were made by people who were on that side and they are the ones who are quantifying themselves about embezzlement and corruption. This House should rise up and mention the names of hon. Members from both sides who have committed these offences or transgressions against the people of Kenya! I cannot reach my home today because all the bridges leading to my home have been washed away and the Ministry does not have money! All we need for my constituency is about Kshs10 million. So, if all constituencies in this country needed Kshs10 million so that hon. Members can get to their homes, it will only add up to Kshs2.1 billion. Just imagine, that is Kshs2.1 billion that we do not have, yet some people have siphoned off Kshs9 billion in one year! What is going to ignite or trigger us to take action and enact an effective law? Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, often, contractors collude with the Attorney-General's 4146 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES December 5, 2006 Chambers or with the Treasury and take the Government to court to recover certain monies, and the Government is never represented in those cases! So, whatever is being requested by the contractors is awarded by the courts because there is no counter-plaint made by the Attorney- General or the Ministry of Finance. How long is this country going to suffer because of inaction by Government agencies who are paid out of the people's taxes? We should hold the Attorney-General and the Ministry of Finance accountable for these losses! We should hold them accountable for not getting to our homes because the bridges have been washed away! I should hold them accountable for not getting to my home! This House is the supreme organ for the people of Kenya, charged with the responsibility to implement the resolutions of this House. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, have we ever received a report on these recommendations from the Treasury as to what has been implemented? Have we ever received a report as to why we should be ten years in arrears? We should be dealing with reports of 2004/2005 now, but we are dealing with the Report of 1998/1999, when some of the people who were involved are dead, some of them have run away, some of them have become destitutes and some of them are in this Parliament to protect themselves! Why can we not ask this Ministry to be accountable and up do date? Why can we not demand that? Why can this House not demand that? We just shed crocodile tears in this House! Take, for example, the Ministry of Local Government, in the 8th Parliament, I was a Member of the PAC, and most of the accounts of the local authorities have not been audited for the last 30 years. Today, I inquired and I was told that the most up-to- date, average local authority in this country in terms of auditing is 20 years in arrears. We are spending Kshs10 billion, Kshs11 billion or Kshs12 billion through the Local Authority Transfer Fund (LATF) to local authorities---"
}