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"content": "Thank you very much, Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, for giving me this opportunity to say one or two things about freedom of information. I would like to thank Prof. Anyang'-Nyong'o for bringing this Motion to the House. I had an opportunity to travel to four states in the USA, through Europe, to see how the freedom of information works. In today's society, we need an open Government, open legislature and open councils. That is the only way that a society can participate in the growth of its country. This Parliament has no cameras today. The society is not informed about what the hon. Members are doing. If we had information from Parliament going out to the general public, the House would be fuller than it is today. This is because members of the public will know the hon. Members who attend Parliament and those who do not. Members of the public will know what their Parliamentarians do. We were elected by our people to represent them in Parliament. We are not doing due diligence to the people of this country when we fail to attend Parliament sittings. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, freedom of information to members of the public is key to development. It is almost impossible today, to get information about who your neighbour is if you sought it from the Registrar of Lands. If you visit the developed countries, log in to the internet and type \"Registrar of Companies or Registrar of Lands and the name of an individual whom you want to find out the properties he or she owns, or who owns which company\", you will get that information. Today, it is almost impossible to get some information from the Registrar of Lands to assist you get a loan from a bank in this country. This is the case and yet in the developed countries, the bank will know whether your title deed is charged, co-owned and give you a loan within two or three days. As Parliamentarians, we should be open with ourselves. We should declare our wealth so that the society can know how much we have at the time of election and how much we have when the next election is being held. This will enable members of the public know whether you have been corrupt by the next election. This is because many hon. Members are not the same financially as they were five years ago.You will find that somebody who was staying in South C is now staying in a huge house in Karen and yet all parliamentarians earn the same salaries. Where is he getting this extra money from? He is not being open to society. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, today the Constituencies Development Fund (CDF) is being scrutinised by the public. Why are Government documents not being scrutinised? Today, if you ask departmental heads at district headquarters to give you a work plan at the constituency level; of the resources available, expenditure and work progress, as a Member of Parliament, you will not get that information. This is because they are given money which they \"eat\". Out of the money that is disbursed to the rural areas from the Government, 97.5 per cent is used irregularly. This will continue to be the practice until that information is made public. The same applies to the use of LATF funds. When I went to a council meeting in America, I noted that it was held in camera. The public was present at the meeting and they were discussing how resources are supposed to be distributed in the rural areas. We will never get service delivery in the rural areas if our county and municipal councils are not open and if their deliberations are not open to scrutiny by the public. You will find a few councillors dividing LATF money amongst themselves to use in their locations. They end up misusing that money because of lack of accountability. We are complaining about how LATF money is being misused because the public 2998 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES October 18, 2006 is not clear on how much money goes to those individual municipal county councils. The public is not clear about how that money is spent. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, political parties also need to be open and transparent. They should indicate where they are getting their funding from. If somebody donates money to a political party that should be made very clear. I have seen that work well in First World countries. This will avoid the issue of the government funding political parties because they are in power or engaging in corrupt practices. You will find unscrupulous businessmen being given tenders by the Government because they have promised to finance a particular political party during the general elections. On the issue of accountability, you will find that the Government keeps on auditing itself. For example, you will find that the Ministry of Local Government sends local government officers to go and investigate county councils and municipal councils. What happens is that the Town Clerk would give Kshs200,000 to the officers and tell them to give clear reports. We need independent auditors sent to those county councils to investigate them and not Government officials whose hands will be greased. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I have heard hon. Members talk about freedom. We are talking about freedom of information. We are not talking about freedom of the Press. I think freedom of the Press is key to the development of our society. You will be able to scrutinise as an individual and find out which newspaper is giving you gutter information and which one is giving you realistic information. We cannot curtail the freedom of the Press or the information that is given to society. However, the public can do that by checking the facts. It is only recently that many Kenyans knew what was in the Constitution of Kenya. Many Kenyans do not even know their rights. In the rural areas, you will find a policeman raiding a homestead without a search warrant. He has no right under the Constitution to come and raid your premises. He will even go to the bedroom of your mother-in-law, where he is not supposed to go. Who gives him that authority? It is because Kenyans do not know what law governs them. It is only recently when the new Constitution was circulated that Kenyans were able to read and understand its contents. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I would like to support Mr. Muite on the issue of the Artur brothers being heard in camera. If the Government is afraid of some issues, that shows that it is guilty. If this Government wants openness, it should be accountable to the people. I thought we had reformists in the Government. It looks like the reformists are not there because of all these cartels and the roadblocks that they have put in place. Today if you go to any county council and ask them how much revenue they collect on a daily basis, they will not be able to tell you because some of this money is collected and is not accounted for. Information through the internet is also very important. We are saying that we will curtail information coming through the internet. I think there are now ways and means through which those who have the equipment can put limits on issues that will bar information that is coming through those computers, as individual institutions. We cannot ask the Government to sift issues. It is like asking parents to supervise how their children are being governed in school when they have given that responsibility to teachers. The Government cannot show you how to run your homestead. That is the responsibility of the father and mother of that house. So, the Government cannot tell us that it cannot allow freedom of information because there are things that come through the internet that are disturbing. There are those who have the responsibility to do that. You cannot ask the Government to be involved in those issues. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, if we do not have internet facilities in this Parliament, then I do not think we are making any progress because we are here to represent the people. While debating in Parliament, one of your constituents might want to give information to you to present as an issue of concern. In many parliaments, you will find that Members of Parliament are always connected to the internet wherever they are so that they are able to communicate with their October 18, 2006 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 2999 constituents while in parliament. You do not have to be sitting in Parliament to follow the proceedings of the House. You can follow the proceedings of Parliament while in your office in Continental House or your constituency office. That happens in many parliaments. You do not have to sit here physically in Parliament to represent your constituents. You can represent your people from where you are. Order papers are prepared using a lot of stationery. This information can be got through the internet. I beg to support."
}