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"content": "30 or 40 years. It is really a sad thing! I think it is painful that Kenyans have to go through this kind of suffering. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, if you go to court awards, it is even worse. You get a court award, you go to the Attorney-General; of course, the Attorney-General knows about it because he is aware of the judgment immediately it is given. You extract a decree and you pay a lot of money to get that decree certified, then the Attorney-General tells you “Now you can leave it with us; we will get you paid.” Of course, the Attorney- General is just the lawyer of the department which is supposed to pay you. Letters are written two years, three years, four years and no payment is done; and you really do not know where to go. Some very good lawyers have had sometimes to get the court to give certain orders that will compel the Attorney-General or that department that has refused to pay you, but it is expensive and it is unnecessary. Now, what can we do? I remember hon. Lotodo, when he was the Minister in charge of wildlife, there was a time when we asked him: “Hon. Lotodo, somebody has been killed by a lion and for eight years he has not been paid, although you had already said that you were supposed to pay him some paltry Kshs30,000.” Hon. Lotodo said: “I want to pay them, but I do not have the money!” The Government rarely budgets for these claims; they do not even know how much they are. In fact, we should find a way in which the Attorney-General can advise each department of the claims they must pay at the end of every year so that there is at least some budgetary allocation. But you will find that most Government departments do not receive any money from the Treasury for payment of these claims. They do not consider them important, yet most of these people have suffered loss because a Government department was wrong. Sometimes they have suffered loss because some wildlife killed your animals, your child or something. I come from the lake where crocodiles have killed a lot of our people, and when you try to get this compensation, the Government does not put any money in it. In fact, the Motion should be a wake-up call; that the Government should treat claims like they treat international debts of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) – that they are the first charge on the Consolidated Fund – so that our people can know with precision that when you get an award, you will most likely get your compensation within six months at most so that you can plan your life around that. Of course, people should not be travelling long distances; of course, people should now be going to their counties to get these claims settled. But this can only happen if we find a way in which a Bill can provide on how this responsibility will be devolved, because if it is a responsibility that is devolved, then money will also be devolved so that these compensations are made. But if you just put an office – like if you put of a Public Trustee in Homa Bay, for example, but he has not received the money, then there is nothing they can do. The office will be there, the claimants will be going there every day, but there will be no settlement because there is no money that has been allocated. So, I support this Motion because most of our people who come to Nairobi several times, first of all, they are unemployed. If you have a claim like this, you have been damaged beyond repair. In fact, you need repair, you do not even need compensation. When you have to come and bother your relatives to sleep in town here and still have to 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."
}