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{
    "id": 27385,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/27385/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 221,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Mr. Kioni",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 49,
        "legal_name": "Jeremiah Ngayu Kioni",
        "slug": "jeremiah-kioni"
    },
    "content": "Thank you Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, for giving me an opportunity to contribute to this Bill on the Commission on Administrative Justice. I want to again thank the Minister for the work that he has done and for bringing this Bill to the House. I want to thank him because this is an issue that has been in the public domain and has occupied the minds of many people for a long time. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I also want to concur with the Seconder of the Bill that a lot of debate has gone into this and we expect the committee to come up with the proposed amendments. Even as we say so, I want to thank the Minister because we have reduced the number of commissioners from nine to five. I think we have still not gone to the extent that is now admirable, which I think is three commissioners. We do not need more than three commissioners in these places. You will realize as we go on, some of the commissions that we have already put in place, the reports that we continue receiving is that a number of the commissioners are a baggage to the commissions. There are those who are contributing nothing. Some of them do not even show up during meetings. There are those who have never said anything since they were appointed to those commissions. In essence, this confirms the fears that, while we thought we were balancing regions, we were just sending names but nothing in terms of content or competence from the persons that we put in those commissions. So, the continued bloating of these commissions is of no value to Kenyans and is actually an unnecessary cost to the taxpayers. Continuing to reduce them to the minimum of three as stipulated in the Constitution is a desirable thing. We would want to encourage the Minister that the commissions to be appointed hereinafter should be reduced to three so that we are able to save some of these costs. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, the other thing that I think is important is that we have seen in the appointment into these offices the issue of horse- trading. This may have passed last night but this practice of horse-trading is not producing quality members to the commissions. All we want to do is to send people from our region. I come from Nyandarua County and I can tell you if I was to count the number of people appointed, we have got a raw deal. However, if we are getting people from other areas who can serve well, that is what we want as a country. This issue of horse-trading has given us people who cannot perform and people who are going to give us unnecessary work of trying to redo the legislation in this House. If we have not learnt, then we will not have another opportunity to learn. It is important that people are appointed to commissions for only one reason; that they can perform and deliver services to the country so that all of us can benefit. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I have said this before and I would like to say it again; we started with a platform where we thought that there is a community that has the majority. This country is made up of minorities. For you to be the majority you need to have 50+1, and there is no single community that can command 50+1 in this country. So, we are actually a country of minorities and all of us must work together and make sure that we benefit from the spoils that are in this Constitution. When we talk about minorities in the Constitution, we should realise that all communities in this country constitute minorities. There is no single community that is a majority. Some may be more than others but that does not make them the majority. As we continue appointing members to commissions let us be guided more by the need for merit, and the need to deliver services to Kenyans because every other Bill that we pass has a commission to operationalize it. If we continue like that, we will end up with the case that we have, where we have an anti-corruption body that has become something else rather than what we all sat here to bring Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I want to thank the Minister and congratulate him for these Bills that have continued to come. This is a very important office and the panel that has been put together to give us the commission needs to understand that in so doing, it is also part of governance and they will be expected to bring in people who can check into governance in this country. This is a very important and serious commission. With those few remarks, I beg to support this Bill."
}