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"speaker_name": "Mr. Wamalwa",
"speaker_title": "The Minister for Justice, National Cohesion and Constitutional Affairs",
"speaker": {
"id": 148,
"legal_name": "Eugene Ludovic Wamalwa",
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"content": " Mr. Speaker, Sir, I wish to second the Motion. Mr. Speaker, Sir, mine being the line Ministry, I want to say that the EACC is one of the most important Commissions under my Ministry. We did, as a House, debate the Report of the Departmental Committee on Justice and Legal Affairs. We did vote on that Report and we need not go back to debate on what we had already debated. The purpose of this Motion is just to approve the names that we have put before this House so that we ensure that this country has a Commission that can fight corruption. We need not overemphasize the need for this Commission. As a nation, we cannot afford to give up on the war against corruption because we come from a painful past of rampant corruption and impunity; corruption that has bled this country white, and which dates back to the 1970s, when we had the KenRen Chemical and Fertilizers Factory that was proposed to be constructed in Changamwe, Mombasa at that time. Mr. Speaker, Sir, our need as a country in the 1980s was only about 150,000 metric tons of fertilizers per year. Currently, as a country, our need is about 500,000 metric tons of fertilizers per year. The cost of importing fertilizers alone is over Kshs30 billion whereas what we owe as a nation for construction of the fertilizers factory was only Kshs4.3 billion. We are paying for a fertilizer factory that was never constructed. Farmers still suffer in this country due to lack of fertilizers. Every year, we must import fertilizers. This is just one example to show what corruption has done to this country not to mention Anglo Leasing, Goldenberg and all the scandals that have unfolded and that are still unfolding in our country today, especially around the election time when mega scandals explode in this country. We cannot afford not to have an Ethics and Anti- Corruption Commission especially at this time when we are going into a general election. Mr. Speaker, Sir, it is therefore, our hope that the imperative - and I believe the fight against corruption is an imperative of our time - should exceed any other considerations. We urge this House to pass this Motion so that we can have an Anti- Corruption Commission in place immediately. Speaking for the Ministry, we know that all those contracts of senior officers at Integrity House have come to an end. We need a commission in place that will take the steering wheel and move the vehicle of anti-corruption forward. Without a proper Commission and dedicated officers in place even the cases that were pending and the evidence that had already been prepared are at risk. Therefore, we need this Commission in place as urgently as possible. We urge the House to approve the names before it today and ensure that we have an Anti-Corruption Commission in place so that we can jump start the fight against corruption. With those few remarks, I beg to second the Motion."
}