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{
"id": 316634,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/316634/?format=api",
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"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Mr. Kimunya",
"speaker_title": "The Minister for Transport",
"speaker": {
"id": 174,
"legal_name": "Amos Muhinga Kimunya",
"slug": "amos-kimunya"
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"content": " Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I will do that. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, like I said, we got some glaring discrepancies. This is because if we are supporting the joint venture, we cannot then say that we are condemning hon. Kimunya for communicating the same message to Central Bank; that the Government has passed a joint venture, which now means that whatever agreement you have, is overtaken by events. That is a natural reaction. The Central Bank had entered into a competitive tender and signed a three-year contract, saying that you will produce the money in Malta - close Ruaraka factory. Having agreed that the only way to save Ruaraka was through a joint venture, then it would have been reckless of us to sit with that information and not communicate with the Central Bank which does not go to the Cabinet and not tell them: “The Cabinet has now approved this. Can you now realign your operations to fit within the new Government policy, which now says that money will be produced through a joint venture to be entered between Treasury and De La Rue and provide value for Central Bank?” Indeed, I did ask the Central Bank to actually look at ways of ensuring that they can get the international price benchmarks and brought into their joint venture negotiations. They will actually be negotiating with the Government and De La Rue as a printer for them. We have seen examples of this. That is why the Government is in Kenya Airways, Kenya Commercial Bank and every parastatal that is strategic. It is to ensure that the national good is protected. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, the second contradiction that I find is obviously the fact that we are saying that hon. Mwiraria was cancelling the tenders for 2002 and issuing interim orders for 1.1 billion pieces at Kshs4.6 billion. But Kimunya is wrong for having postponed the delivery of money to beyond election time and having said that we are going into a joint venture; do not print under this framework and basically, for not causing any loss to the country, because we would have spent Kshs3.75 billion. We actually spent Kshs3.72 billion during the same period, unless we want to get into the trap of where the Auditor-General is comparing a five-year production with a three-year cost commitment, which is basically comparing oranges with apples. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, the other issue that I want to raise is really that had the Auditor-General looked at all this information in the Cabinet papers, which contain all the documentation or called me, then we would have had a detailed discussion on this matter and gone through the numbers. He would probably not have given the impression that there was a loss which, again, may have triggered the Committee to think that there was a loss and it needed to act. Now that you know that there is no loss, I would like to urge the House that, perhaps, we need to delete all those recommendations. When you delete them then, really, the Report is left with nothing, because we are agreeing on the joint venture. There is no need for investigation and calling on Kimunya not to hold public office. So, really, there is no other recommendation and we might as well tell the Committee: “Thank you very much for doing the work and raising our awareness, but this Report will not be of any use to this House or Kenyans into the future. We probably do not need to vote on it either way”. That is why I am opposing it."
}