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"id": 29230,
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"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Mr. Linturi",
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"speaker": {
"id": 69,
"legal_name": "Franklin Mithika Linturi",
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"content": "Thank you Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir. I was watching news and when I heard hon. Members contributing to this Bill, I had to wake up and come. From the onset, I must say that I rise this night to support this Bill. I believe that corruption is a cancer. It is a disease that we must eradicate at all costs, if this country has to move forward. As I was watching the news, I was shocked to see one of the senior officers in this country charged with the responsibility of fighting corruption trying to explain how he was going to be bribed by a Member of Parliament. For us to fight corruption effectively, we must address the supply and demand side of corruption. If it is, indeed, true, that the Director of KACC has admitted, in the first place, to have received a cheque, in my view, I am almost persuaded to believe that he must have asked for it. It is only that it is so bad in the sense that he is the person who is supposed to be investigating people and yet, he cannot investigate himself. I want to say that absolute power corrupts, and corrupts absolutely. We have given that gentleman a lot of powers and, maybe, the kind of big talk that he exhibits all over is somehow, in my opinion, a way of trying to cover up for some of the inadequacies that the Kamukunji people found in him, that he did not qualify to be a Member of Parliament that he wanted to be. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, let me also say that when you find people climbing up the ladder and forgetting that the ladder they used to climb to the top may, at one time, be required to climb down, that becomes a serious problem in the mindset of the individuals that we charge with public responsibilities. I am saying that because when you look at the conduct of those officers, especially when they are doing their own investigations--- We want to get people into that office who have the respect for the rule of law; people who respect for various Acts of Parliament that have been passed so that, when they are conducting investigations, they know that they are bound by certain rules of procedure. The audits that are carried out in this country are procedural and system audits. We have not yet amended the Public Audit Act that provides value for money audits. When I hear people complaining all over---You find some of those people questioning when a clear procurement process was put in place and a contract was given for say, a construction of a dam or a classroom, and people start wondering: “How can this class cost so much money?” That office also requires serious capacity for them to conduct that kind of investigation because they do not have quantity surveyors, engineers - both structural and civil - and architects for them to do that kind of work. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, it is my opinion that those people have forgotten what they are supposed to do. We have given them a lot of work to do, but they have not been doing it. For example, we have given them tips. I chair the Public Investments Committee. We have so many recommendations which we have submitted to them. We have told them there was corruption at Kenya Railways Corporation and NSSF, among others. We have told them: “This is the scanty information that we have got. Because you have the powers to investigate, kindly investigate and if you find those people culpable, then take the necessary legal action against them.” They have not done anything. What we find is an officer trying to pretend to be working so well to the extent that you find him in the streets demonstrating against Ministers and Members of Parliament. Then you wonder: If this is the person who is doing investigations--- For him to investigate, somebody must have already formed an opinion over this Ministry. What kind of a hearing or fair judgment will be given to matters that are presented before him in the case of trying to evaluate the allegations against any one particular Minister. I want to suggest that when we are picking such officers, we must have officers that have basic office etiquette. They must be people who must understand and know how offices should function, so that we do not have activists in some of the very sensitive positions of public offices. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I beg to support."
}