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{
    "id": 425526,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/425526/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 369,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. Martin Nyaga Wambora",
    "speaker_title": "The Governor of Embu County",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 285,
        "legal_name": "Martin Nyaga Wambora",
        "slug": "martin-wambora"
    },
    "content": " Thank you Mr. Speaker, Sir, for giving me the opportunity to present my position. On my right is Mr. Wilfred Nyamu, my legal counsel. I will take 15 minutes and then the legal counsel will take the other 15 minutes. May I reiterate my impeccable career both in the Civil Service and in the political arena as a DC, Under Secretary, Deputy Secretary, Chief Finance Officer and Deputy Director of Budget. For 25 years I have done this work including serving in one of the biggest Ministries, the office of the President, for six years with a budget of billions of money and I have never been faulted for taking even a shilling of the public funds. I have undertaken my work with efficiency and vision. This work of Governor is not the first one I have done. In the political arena, I was a Member of Parliament in the Ninth Parliament and I administered the CDF very well. I was even commended by the Board of CDF as among the best. I was the Chairman of the Kenya Airports Authority (KAA) for two and a half years, during which period Jomo Kenyatta International Airport got three awards under my watch. As a Governor, for the short period I have been there, I have led my county with vision and mission. I want to state here that I am a firm believer that great leaders do not get involved in details. As a Governor I cannot do procurement. I do policy and procurement oversight, just to make sure that things are moving on well. However, I want to inform this honourable House the major challenges which we faced as the first Governors in this country. One of them is that we had to live by the County Goverrmnent Public Finance Transitional Act which was effective from January to September, 2013. That law gave exceptional powers to the Interim County Secretaries with clear instructions to account for use of funds as well as procurement to the Transitional Authority (TA) headquarters. If you listened to the hearings during the Committee sittings, Mr. Makori, the Chief Executive Officer of the Transition Authority confirmed that in the case of Embu, they sent an AIE of over Kshs61 million for rehabilitation of the county assembly, the rehabilitation of the Governor’s office, among other projects. The Accounting Officer was directly accounting to the CEO of the Transitional Authority. Our hands were tied and they made sure that the Governors could not get anywhere near procurement. This is not abdication. After they left on 30th December, there is no information I do not get from the accounting officers or the county secretaries. After that, things became open, and anything that happened after that time, I would take responsibility. Mr. Speaker, Sir the Auditor-General’s report which is highly being quoted here traversed the period between March and June. This is one quarter when our hands were tied and we could not play an effective role in the areas of procurement. So that was a major handicap. I would again repeat that great leaders focus on vision, policy and mission, but not on detail. On the issue of the Embu Stadium, it suffices to say that not a single cent has been spent on that stadium to date. Investigations are being done by the Ethics and Anti Corruption Commission (EACC). The same applies to the maize seed whose germination 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."
}