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"speaker_name": "Sen. (Dr.) Khalwale",
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"content": "Mr. Speaker, Sir, I rise to support this Motion and, really, I would like to wonder aloud; how amazing it is that 50 years from the time harambee was introduced in this country whereupon billions of shillings have been collected, we have been able to operationalize the process without law. It is, therefore, very gratifying that the honorable Senator for Kisumu has now commenced the process that will now give us a law whose time is long overdue. Mr. Speaker, Sir, I would like to use this opportunity to remind the rest of us that the gains we have made in this country because of harambees are so much that this Committee should be expanded to its fullest so that we can exploit every opportunity to make sure that this law is perfect. When I go to my community, harambee has done more good in my region than the Government. Even great institutions like Masinde Muliro University in Kakamega were built through harambee. It started off as Western College (WECO). There are other great institutions like Sang’alo Technical Training Institute, which started the same way. Mr. Speaker, Sir, great schools like Musingu High School and Friends School, Kamusinga, in Western Province have all been built by harambees. Even in my own profession, I know that harambee knows no limit between the poor and the rich. A great hospital like Nairobi Hospital has been built, to a great extent, through harambee. We had a very successful project there called “Buy a Brick” where people were free to bring in money on the assumption that they were bringing in one or more bricks. We should, therefore, today be deliberating not on whether to make harambee something which is legal or not, but we should be creating the insulation that will make it impossible for people to abuse public funds. Mr. Speaker, Sir, when you look at the behaviour of the committees that manage harambees – the so-called steering committees – soliciting for funds, during the time of soliciting for funds, these committees approach the public but once the money has been realized, they start treating that money as if they are private funds. It will, therefore, be important that in this Bill, it should be made clear that monies realized from harambees are public funds and they should even, to a greater extent, be subjected to the Public Finance Management Act. Mr. Speaker, Sir, we have to rethink the issue that has been vexing us this afternoon, on the number of ad hoc Committees because, to me, this means that if the Senate must rise to its calling, then it would be important that the Office of the Speaker of the Senate should fight and ensure that every Senator has got a fully fledged office where the Senate employs a research officer who will be doing some of this work that we want to use Committees by way also of collecting and collating information. The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposes only. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor, Senate."
}