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"id": 254351,
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"speaker_name": "Mr. Kenyatta",
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"speaker": {
"id": 168,
"legal_name": "Uhuru Muigai Kenyatta",
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"content": "Those individuals and the system is what our Committee, through its recommendations, is asking this House to uproot. Our Committee is not just asking for those individuals to be uprooted, but saying that we can no longer continue to throw away our issues of corruption to some junior servants. Time has come for us as a nation, to begin taking political accountability for our actions. April 5, 2006 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 385 Mr. Speaker, Sir, a lot has been said and will continue to be said. However, what is clear and the simple truth is that, unless this House decides to take action and sets aside simple political gains of political expediency; and continues to say that corruption is a factor of yesteryear; without recognising that corruption exists today, and will continue to exist tomorrow; and unless we, as Parliamentarians, put up the necessary structures to prevent this kind of thing happening in future, we will see no end to the corrupt on-goings. My colleagues, whom I will also give a chance, will elaborate to this House, in a lot more details than I have, the failings, intentional or otherwise, of the procuring Ministry and those of Attorney-General's Chamber. I want to say it on record, with all due respect to the Attorney-General of this Republic, that when he tells us that the Government's financial regulations that spell out specific duties for various departments and Ministries are actually practised, to use his own words, more in observation than in practice; who then is protecting the citizens of this land? When you hear senior Government and Treasury Officials, including the Minister, saying that the amount of work they have is too much, and papers are slipped in their offices requiring the signing out of Kshs2.7 billion, only for them to say that they did not realise what they were signing and they were misled, such individuals should not be sitting in executive positions because, finally and ultimately, the buck must stop somewhere. Ultimately, with great deal of respect for my father and senior politician of this country, the hon. Vice-President and Minister for Home Affairs, although we are not investigators, either knowingly or unknowingly, whatever the case might be, we do not know and that is for investigators to tell us, he told us that Anglo Leasing was an entity that he did not know. Evidence adduced before our Committee indicates that he had knowledge of Anglo Leasing. We are not concluding that his knowledge of Anglo Leasing means that he was involved in it; that is not for us to conclude and it is not the business of this Committee or for that matter, of this House. However, it is important that those bodies charged with the responsibility of investigations tell us, and the nation, why that was the case. In my heart of hearts, I pray that the hon. Vice-President and Minister for Home Affairs did so because he was misled by his officials. But that is neither for me nor for this House to decide. But in our recommendations, we have said that this is not about the hon. Vice-President and Minster for Home Affairs. It is not about the former hon. Minister for Finance or for any hon. Member in or outside this House. This is about bringing to an end, a system that has continued to fleece our nation of much needed resources. As I conclude, I would like to touch briefly on some of the recommendations and why they were arrived at. As I said, it is not for us, but for the relevant bodies which are charged, to further the investigations. It is up to them to go through the information that we have and any other information they may have so that ultimately, we may have accountability. We have also stated - I am sorry to go back slightly - on the Floor of this House, it has been stated severally that a number of those contracts have been cancelled. Information made available to us is that those contracts have been cancelled in \"words\". However, the legal process is yet to be cancelled. What, therefore, does that mean? That means that as we stand, today, Kenyans stand liable to pay billions of shillings for production of nothing in terms of penalties and other things. Our recommendation is that the Attorney-General's Chambers should take the necessary legal action, not just to terminate this particular project, but to eliminate all those other contracts in a legally binding fashion so that we can save this Republic and its people of this money. Mr. Speaker, Sir, we have also stated that in future, no finance agreement can be signed before the relative Minister and Accounting Officer of the procuring Ministry, the Attorney- General and the Treasury are satisfied that due diligence has been done on the supply and financing company. Equally, no payment should be made before due diligence is done, because that is another area in which we need to elaborate on. Mr. Speaker, Sir how was this done? The procuring Ministry goes and signs a contract and a finance agreement, which is then taken to the Debt Management Section at the Treasury. Do you know what the Debt Management Department does? It opens its debt book and listed there is 386 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES April 5, 2006 Anglo Leasing debt, showing that the payment of US$3 million is due. Without even cross- checking with the procuring Ministry, they will just proceed to pay, why? Because that is part of our national debt. That is a debt that has never been approved by this House and which has been secured circumventing the budgetary process, once again under the guise of security. This security has caused Kenyans more because as we look, it is no wonder our police have poor housing and equipment."
}