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"speaker_name": "Mr. Kipchumba",
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"legal_name": "Joseph Kipchumba Lagat",
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"content": "Thank you, Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, for giving me the opportunity to contribute to this Motion. Hon. Members will recall that the same Motion was in this House some time last year. The Motion was rejected by this House. It has come back, probably, with a change of the names of the proposed membership. We have now been told that the names proposed in this Motion are of people of integrity. I am not sure whether the rest of the Members of this House have no integrity at all. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, already, Parliament has two watchdog Committees, namely, the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), and the Public Investments Committee (PIC), for which you are the Chairman. This House must deviate from running away from responsibility. If we, indeed, want to do more work for these Committees, we should amend the Standing Orders so that either the PAC or the PIC can be given more powers, if they so desire. However, to say that we want to establish another Committee is not proper. I would want to be convinced by more reasons other than those that have been given. The Kenya Anti-Corruption Commission (KACC) makes a report on the corruption situation in the country on a quarterly basis. That report is made available to Parliament, as provided for in the Commission's enabling Act. However, when that report comes to this House, very few hon. Members care to look at it. The KACC could have its own shortcomings, just like any other institution. We mentioned here before that we gave the KACC power to investigate corruption cases, but we did not give it power to prosecute because doing so would be contravening the Constitution. However, we are not saying that some of these institutions have failed. I would wish to be told that they have failed because of specific reasons. I do not also think that we lack information. We have information on the Kenya Anti-Corruption Commission (KACC). We also have information on the shortcomings that are in the Public Accounts Committee (PAC). Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, you know very well that we have made proposals in the past to amend the Standing Orders, so that the watchdog Committees can be given more powers. The Committees have been frustrated. They have not been able to move on because the Standing Orders Committee has not made the necessary provisions. I think we do not want to create more work for the hon. Members. In fact, most of the hon. Members are overwhelmed by the amount of work that they have in the various Committees. To say that we want more work when we cannot even perform in the few Committees that we have, is, in fact, to deceive ourselves. We have spent a lot of money in fighting corruption. We have the police, Parliament and the KACC. We also have another commission that is headed by some church people, whom I do not know what they do. We are spending a lot of money on these institutions. If we want to give power to people to fight corruption, we should legislate. We should make the Act that governs the 882 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES May 3, 2006 KACC more stronger. Parliament has power to legislate. If, indeed, you feel that the KACC is not performing as you deem it should, you should amend the Act that governs it. That is the job of this Parliament. We are running away from our responsibilities. We want to duplicate roles. I do not know whether we want to do the job of the Executive. I do not know whether Parliament wants to do the job of KACC or the police. We cannot do this. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, the PAC has produced voluminous reports, which only require implementation. The problem in this country is not lack of information. It is not that Kenyans do not know where there is corruption. Our problem is the implementation of the reports. You are aware that we cannot control the courts. Courts are run by a totally different department, namely, the Judiciary. Even when the police has investigated and brought information for prosecution, the courts may rule otherwise. If we are frustrated, we are not frustrated by lack of information. We could be frustrated by the fact that our courts are not running as they should or because certain personalities in the institutions that we have established are not doing their job, so that whenever somebody fails in an institution, we create another one. Finally, we will be having around 20 institutions that are doing the same thing. Therefore, it is time that Parliament becomes serious. If, indeed, the KACC brings its reports to this House, the relevant Committee of this House must look at them. The relevant Committee is the Committee on Administration of Justice and Legal Affairs. This Committee should advise us as to whether the reports that have been brought to this House by the KACC are adequate and fair. If you ask many hon. Members whether they have read the reports that have been brought by the KACC, you will realise that they might not even have seen them. We created the KACC to report to Parliament. We have our own institutions, namely, the PAC and PIC. Now we want to create another committee to be in charge of the PAC, the PIC and probably the KACC."
}