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{
    "id": 396417,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/396417/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 150,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Wangari",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13123,
        "legal_name": "Martha Wangari",
        "slug": "martha-wangari"
    },
    "content": "Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, I rise to oppose the Motion as it is. This is because this Report is very inconclusive. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, I want to refer to the role of the Senate, even from Articles 96 and 97. The Senate has the mandate of oversighting and protecting the counties and county governments. I know that the Constitution does not really itemize from whom we protect the counties, but I think that we need to even protect the counties from themselves. It will be a failure on our part if we just adopt this Report, the way it is, as reported by the Office of the Controller of Budget, and leave it at that. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, if you look at the Report of the Controller of Budget on page 16, which is very scaring, on the increases and decreases, you will be shocked to realize that Turkana is where we are talking about natural resources and the fact that we have found oil and water in the area. That has been decreased. It is actually the second item on the decreases. It has been decreased by Kshs60 million whereas the expenditure for the office of the Governor has been increased by Kshs237 million which is about four times. This is the decrease in allocations to the energy, environment and natural resources category. It is not enough to say that we need further investigation. If you look at that Report, Part VI, they say that it has been established that laws have been bent, surpassed and the PMF Act has been ignored. We are saying that we are on a learning curve but it is not an excuse for anyone to hide under that and become mischievous and commit a crime. Punitive measures must be taken. This being our first Report on this matter, we have 46 other counties that will learn from this precedent that we will set here. If we set the wrong precedent, it will be very hard for us to deal with the rest of the counties. We should not adopt this Report because we shall be failing as a House. We hope that the Standing Committee on Finance, Commerce and Economic Affairs will sit down and not just present to us the raw copy of the Report of the Controller of Budget but do a thorough report. Someone has to take responsibility. First of all, there is the personal responsibility. We must know what really happened. I know that we have had such scenarios in this country where certain documents are taken to the Government Printer and overnight, they are altered. This was a lesson to this country and we should not let it trickle to the counties. It has to be stopped immediately. We should know where the alterations took place and the consequences accompanying that action. I know that the integrity chapter of the Constitution is very clear. We are hoping that the Committee will be able to summon these officers; the Governor with the executive committee and fish out the answers. This must be treated as a very urgent matter because this precedent must be set right. 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."
}