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{
    "id": 381767,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/381767/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 114,
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    "content": "1980, nearly 50 per cent of secondary schools had been built through harambee initiatives. So, from the contextualisation of harambee to something that is positive or well intentioned, of course, over time people have moved forward and taken the initial agenda of what harambees were meant for to a different level. Therefore, that is where the dysfunctional aspects or problems of harambee and contributing to harambees has come. That is where the negative notion came up. This is something that we will now need to change and create a positive notion and look for a formalized process so that whenever contributions are made, they are done in a formalized way. It is not anything new for any person--- for example, among the provincial administration, for services to be rendered, you needed to give a small contribution. I remember when we were send to the chief, the card would be waiting for you and you had to make a contribution before you are given a particular service. For a long time also businessmen were given government contracts according to how much one contributed. Therefore, the whole issue of professionalism rather than what somebody was doing was not taken into consideration. That is where we started to have the commercialization of leadership to an extent that now to be seen as a good leader, you need to be the one who makes the most contributions. That is what brought problems and started to make such contributions to be seen from a negative point of view. A lot of embezzlement also begun to take place and the good natured approach and idea for harambee was taken over. You find situations where people gave money and there was no accountability. We have heard cases where there was a pre-wedding and people gave money, but there was no wedding. Funds are collected. As much as they are public funds, nobody there saw the need of accounting for the funds. In fact, it is interesting that the public itself is the one--- As much as they give those funds, they do not expect any sort of accountability from the people concerned. Therefore, over time, there has not been a need to maintain some sort of accountability or come up with mechanisms for accountability in how public funds are used. Even when it came to times of elections, various leaders would be seen to be campaigning by the amounts of money they are able to give. Mr. Speaker, Sir, the Public Officer Ethics Act actually outlawed personal involvement of public officers in organizing harambees. At the end of day, harambees would begin to get their value and be appreciated. When we are talking about leadership and you are misinformed in terms of selecting leaders who have money, those might not be the ones necessarily who have the right qualities for leadership. Incidentally, various studies have shown that when people were asked, on the basis of understanding the Constitution, as to who the good leaders were, some thought that leaders are those who are able to give more money. This can be very misleading. Mr. Speaker, Sir, this Motion is very critical because we should not kill harambees, but only kill the form which they have taken. We should move towards more formalisation of harambees. It is going to be difficult not for the small-scale level of harambees, but for the more formalised and large-scale harambees. We need to have a structure to know which ones are the more formalized ones because we are not going to control impromptu harambees which can be done during the naming of a child. For the very formalised process, it is important for us to determine the criteria so that for those specific ones, it is very clear that they have to have a particular process and the money 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."
}