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{
    "id": 244841,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/244841/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 203,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Mr. Omingo",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 180,
        "legal_name": "James Omingo Magara",
        "slug": "omingo-magara"
    },
    "content": "Thank you, Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, for giving me this opportunity to contribute to this Bill. On the outset, I want to support the Bill. Statistics can be used to prove anything or nothing. It depends on the way we use it. You will find that someone can be used to prove a point to favour certain people, or deprive them of a benefit . This Bill is welcome. We want to insist that once we pass it, it should be implemented immediately for purposes of distributing government resources equitably. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I have seen in the Bill that the Minister will appoint the date when it will come into force. This will render the role of Parliament meaningless. The Bill says that it will become operational when the Minister will deem that fit. It is important for us to fix a time frame within which the Minister should operationalise the Bill. If a law is debated and passed by Parliament, and then it is assented to by the President, it should become operational within one or two months. So, we do not want to give Ministers who are lazy an opportunity to sit on Bills. Some of them have failed to provide operational guidelines or policies which could aid in the implementation and actualization of Acts of Parliament. It is through a Bill like this one that our people can enjoy the benefits stated herein. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, with regard to appointments, as hon. Members have already said, it is critical that we vet people with good character and substantial credentials to serve in various positions of this body. What has been ailing us in the past is that for as long as you can shout the political slogan of the appointing authorities, then you are rewarded with appointment to a national office. As a result, we have led this country into misery and wastage in terms of Government resources and value for money we place on the kind of bodies that we set up. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I want to sound a word of caution to the fact that we should not be forming parastatals for the purpose of providing jobs for our friends. This point must be understood clearly. If you look, for example, at the Kenya Anti-Corruption Commission (KACC), they draw so much money from the Exchequer, and yet when they complete investigations they hand them over to poor Mr. Amos Wako, who has staff who are paid only a tenth of the salaries that the staff at KACC get. I think it is only fair that we have corporations that can deliver. We should not form corporations for purposes of political expediency and guzzling of resources from the Exchequer."
}