Entry Instance

HTTP 200 OK
Allow: GET, PUT, PATCH, DELETE, HEAD, OPTIONS
Content-Type: application/json
Vary: Accept

{
    "id": 354261,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/354261/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 122,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Eng. Gumbo",
    "speaker_title": "The Member for Rarieda",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 24,
        "legal_name": "Nicholas Gumbo",
        "slug": "nicholas-gumbo"
    },
    "content": " Hon. Deputy Speaker, thank you for giving me the opportunity to contribute to this Motion. May I start by thanking the Almighty God, the creator of the universe for choosing me to be the person who broke the one-term jinx of Rarieda Constituency after very many powerful men had come to this House, including freedom fighters, cabinet Ministers but they were not worthy before God to break the one-term jinx. I also want to thank my late parents, Francis and Dorcas Gumbo who inculcated in me the belief that you can be as audaciously hopeful as you want because there is no limit to how much hope you can have. Contributing on the Motion, a lot has been said and I do not want to go back there but I want to note one point that the President said which is on the question of the spiraling public wage bill. As a House, I think we have a duty to help the President in taming the wage bill but even as we do that, it is imperative for hon. Members to note that as we stand now, the institution of Parliament is gravely under threat and the war against Parliament is being fronted by none other than the commissions that have been midwifed by this House. I find it most unacceptable that this war is being waged through contempt, dishonesty and lack of sincerity on the part of these commissions. We are now being told that as Parliamentarians we were the once responsible for the spiraling wage bill. Nothing can be further from the truth. Parliamentarians have earned the same salary for the past ten years. What we are asking for is maintenance of that salary. I have not heard any of my colleagues asking that the salary should be increased. If truly this Government is interested in taming the wage bill, then the place to look is in the commissions and not in this Parliament. Today we have commissioners, in fact, twice more than the Senators in this country. Does Kenya need all those commissioners? I will give an example: One of the most populated countries in the world is India with a population of well in excess of one billion people. In fact, the registered voters in India are more than 800 million. Who manages the elections in India? It is three commissioners with a staff of hardly 300 people yet in our country we have nine commissioners most of whom are underworked, heavily overpaid and they do nothing to make our elections what they should be. This House has a duty to help the President to reduce the wage bill and the way to do is that we do not need all these commissioners to be on a permanent basis. In fact, we do not need these commissions to be as populated as they are. I urge this House to start, through our Committees, by ensuring that we reduce, first of all, the number of commissioners who sit in these commissions and secondly to put these commissioners on a part time basis."
}