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{
    "id": 306626,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/306626/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 392,
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    "content": "agree with the media at times, but at this time he got this article spot on and he has helped clarify most of the issues that we would have been required to. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, in terms of the declaration of income, and, again, this has caused a lot of confusion--- Having been part of the initial Anti-Corruption Authority in the early 1990s and having done quite a bit of work through Institute of Certified Public Accountants of Kenya (ICPAK), I want to say that declaration of wealth as a tool for leadership only works if you also have alongside it the issue of living beyond known means as a crime. It is not in our statute books and so whatever you declare at the beginning, if nobody is going to hold you responsible for the increase of your wealth, it makes it redundant from the word go. We need to be very careful about what we ask for in view of the limitations that have been put by the new Constitution, in terms of what information you can ask people to give and in terms of how you can use that information. If you cannot use it in a court of law in terms of self incrimination – I think this was proved in some recent court cases – then it begs to bring the issue into conflict in terms of what you are asking to self declare and you are not going to open that information or use it. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I want to mention a few things about the issues that have been coming up and we discussed them at length in our Committee. This is in terms of what gainful employment is and whether we are going to have a situation where, by implication of the law, you are saying that any public servant or any State officer or their relatives or friends should not engage in any gainful employment. That is a draconian law that CIOC would like us to pass. We are basically saying that you are criminalizing business by assuming that any one State officer is criminal unless proved otherwise by engaging in business which, again, is cutting people’s livelihoods. You might find a situation where nobody wants to serve in the public service or as a State officer because their relatives or their families will be stopped from engaging in any business. There is a lot of talk that there are no sanctions in the law. Now, this House has passed lots of sanctions in terms of anyone engaging in economic crimes. This has been defined within the Economic Crimes Act. Some have been put in the Penal Code. I do not think it is fair that every piece of legislation that comes should attempt to be a stand alone with its own sanctions when they are already available elsewhere. I believe our Committees will be looking at those things because these are some of the misleading information that are being peddled to the public out there that, in fact, this Parliament has not done a proper law when, in fact, it has very good laws and cross-references. Mr. Deputy Speaker, I want to leave some of those issues to my other colleagues who are in the Committee. I want to pay tribute to hon. Kingi, hon. Elmi and hon. Wamalwa who sat with the CIC, the Law Reform Commission and all the stakeholders from morning until midnight and we agreed on these matters clause by clause. We agreed that this is the best Leadership and Integrity Bill to be presented in the House. Obviously, people must play to the galleries. They must appear to be whiter than white and that is what is causing the biggest problem in this country. Even when we have agreed on something, people want to go back and say that Parliament is not an institutional that is giving good laws and that stakeholders out there can do better laws, yet they are not on the Floor of this House. The people of Kenya have voted and determined that the 222 Members are the ones who make laws and anyone else can only come through the representatives."
}