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"content": "it, the offence of forgery was committed because the document was altered. If it was not forgery then there was alteration of a public document. This document is an instrument of a parliament because the county assembly is a parliament. This is a serious issue because someone altered the instrument that has been carried out through a Parliamentary process although it is at the county level. This is a serious matter because if you do not know, this is not the first time it has happened. There was a time Parliament had passed a law in relation to elections, that is, the National Assembly and Presidential Elections Act, the Office of the Attorney-General and the Office of the Government Printer altered the words “not more than” and removed “not less than”. In law this can bring a lot of chaos and anarchy. On the face of it, it was not noticed until people were going for elections. Luckily, this matter went before a judge who made the right decision, but suffered for it. He was disciplined in other ways because the executive at that time was all-powerful. So, that judge, up today, thinks that the beginning of his problems was when he refused to listen to the executive and said that the Government and the Attorney- General had made alterations to the law. That was a serious matter that required somebody to be punished. Since they had altered it, they did not stop there. They took the altered document for a purpose to the office of the Controller of Budget for the purpose of releasing funds in the manner that was contained in the altered document. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, regarding the offence of abuse of office, if you occupy an office and you use that office for such purpose, under the old law, it was punishable under the penal code. But right now, it is a very serious offence under the Constitution and under the law that relates to anti-corruption and ethics. The constitutional violations are more serious because what the executive in Turkana was trying to do is to undermine the authority of a constitutional body. The county assembly had deliberated and passed the budget estimates. However, instead of allowing it to take its normal cause, they changed it. That means that they had no regard at all for the county assembly. When you read the Constitution, the principles and provisions relating to Leadership and Integrity in Article 73, the principles and values of public service, to that extent, the Senate must express its condemnation in the harshest terms to the county government of Turkana because this was a deed of the county executive of Turkana. They cannot run away from it. It does not matter whether it is controlled by CORD. I must say that when it comes to these matters, we should not look at which government is there. If it is in CORD or Jubilee area, as a Senate, we must be seen to be working for the right cause and that we are true to the Constitution and the oath that we took. So, we must say what must be said without mincing words. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, my recommendation would be that at an appropriate time, this matter should go back to the Committee for further investigations, so that the Senate is not seen just to be passing reports for the sake of it. We are not adding anything from what we have received from the office of the Controller of Budget. If you look at the JM Report which was an inquiry done by Parliament at another age when saying things as they were was more difficult - that was in the 1970s. The report made specific recommendations, but when it landed in the hands of the executive, it wanted to alter the report because Parliament showed teeth and clearly stated that so and so should be investigated. In fact, that report particularized who should be investigated. Where the 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."
}