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{
    "id": 395870,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/395870/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 403,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. (Eng.) Gumbo",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 24,
        "legal_name": "Nicholas Gumbo",
        "slug": "nicholas-gumbo"
    },
    "content": "and moving along partisan political lines which to me is not favourable. I have said it here on the Floor of the House and I want to say it again that if there is a defect in the Constitution we passed in 2010, it is the burden that the Commissions have put on the Kenyan public. It is very clear in the Constitution. It says between three and nine Commissioners. But in a bid to pursue this elusive thing called “ethnicity or regional balance” as if we can fit every community in one Commission, we insisted on going for nine Commissioners. It is elusive and it is not achievable. The functions of the Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC) are very clear; that is to set and review salaries of State officers and to advise on salaries for public officers. To me, that is a part time job that Madam Serem and her term have turned themselves into full time Commissioners. We have to say this. Hon. Deputy Speaker, if there is something defective with this Constitution, we need to point it out. I want to declare that I supported it half-heartedly in 2010. It has reached a point where it appears to have put what I can call “official dishonesty” in the way we do things. I will give you an example. Look at the Judicial Service Commission (JSC). We read in the newspapers that those people sit almost on a daily basis, and that every time they sit, each one of them earns Kshs80,000. That is obscene. We cannot call it anything else. Looking at the functions of the JSC, which of them requires them to sit on a daily basis? What for? Look at the squabbles that are going within the JSC. Why on earth must the Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC), a nominee to which we are now considering, be working on a full-time basis? When I first spoke in the Eleventh Parliament, I said that this House has a duty to look at the composition of all constitutional Commissions. They are a burden to the public. The members of most of those Commissions are overpaid. The Commissions constitute of individuals who do not even know what they are supposed to be doing for the people of Kenya. A lot of the Commissioners are old men with white hair. What do they do? They entertain girls who are young enough to be their daughters."
}