HTTP 200 OK
Allow: GET, PUT, PATCH, DELETE, HEAD, OPTIONS
Content-Type: application/json
Vary: Accept
{
"id": 238486,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/238486/?format=api",
"text_counter": 167,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Mr. Raila",
"speaker_title": "",
"speaker": {
"id": 195,
"legal_name": "Raila Amolo Odinga",
"slug": "raila-odinga"
},
"content": "Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, the Official Secrets Act has been used to suppress and oppress civil servants who may want to give out information. The whistle blowers in the system are not protected. Of course, they are now going to be protected, but that was not the case. So many people have been oppressed. If we had the Act being envisaged by this Motion, corruption that we have in this country would not have reached its present level. Civil servants are being threatened, intimidated and blackmailed all the time. I know this for a fact because I have been in the Government. The Head of the Civil Service and Secretary to the Cabinet, Mr. Muthaura, keeps on blackmailing Permanent Secretaries and all senior Government officials with repression or dismissal if they release vital information. There was a time when I invited Edgar Tekere, a former freedom fighter in Zimbabwe. He was invited by my friends and colleague, Prof. Anyang'-Nyong'o, to address students at the University of Nairobi. The moment this appeared in the newspapers, the security system started looking for Mr. Tekere. Some officers came to my office, picked me up and demanded that I produce Mr. Tekere. I took them to my residence. They picked up Mr. Tekere. He was warned that he had no right to address students at the University of Nairobi basically because he was considered to be marxist. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, the tendering process in this country is so opaque. That is why we have a problem. While I was in the current Government, as the Minister for Roads, Public Works and Housing then, I appointed a committee to investigate the pending bills issue in my Ministry. The committee was chaired by Eng. Kiptoon. When the committee finished its work, I invited the then Permanent Secretary for Governance and Ethics, Mr. John Githongo, to be present when the report was being presented to me. I also invited members of the Press. Immediately the report was presented to me, my Permanent Secretary panicked. He asked me: \"How are you releasing Government secrets before this matter has been discussed?\" I told him that in as far as I was concerned, we had now reached a level and era of transparency and so, we must have complete disclosure of whatever we are doing. We must give information to members of the public. That was considered to be something that was very irregular in as far as the Government was concerned. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, the raid on the Standard newspaper production plant, and KTN newsroom, by Government security personnel was a very sad episode. The raid was carried out purportedly because the two sister media houses were supposed to have been publishing something that was very damaging to the Government. Hon. Muite will own up here that when his Committee invited hon. Michuki, he told them that the sister media houses were supposed to publish some very dangerous material. When they asked him to share the danger with them, he told them that the media houses were supposed to publish something about the First Family. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, even if one were to publish something about the First Family, what is criminal or treasonable about it? The fact is that when they raided the media houses, they got copies of the Standard Newspaper which had already been published and there was nothing negative about the First Family. Hon. Michuki has never come out openly to"
}