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{
    "id": 461078,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/461078/?format=api",
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    "content": "Hon. Members, you will recall that on Tuesday, 22nd October, 2013, the Member for Ugenya, hon. David Ouma Ochieng, rose on a point of order and sought the guidance of the Chair on the scope of authority and powers of committees of the National Assembly, under Standing Order No.216(5), to investigate, inquire into and report on all matters relating to the mandate, management, activities, administration and operations of the assigned Ministries and departments, and particularly in relation to functions of oversight and specialised investigative agencies. Other hon. Members, including the Leader of the Minority Coalition, and the Member for Suba, also raised similar matters. Hon. Ochieng sought to know whether committees should engage in what he termed as “primary investigations” and whether in fact the House has the relevant competence to conduct complex forensic investigations. He wondered why days after His Excellency the President undertook to set up an inquiry into the complex matter of the Westgate Mall terror attack, the Departmental Committee on Administration and National Security and the one on Defence and Foreign Relations, could not wait until the relevant specialised agencies completed investigations, so that they could engage on its oversight. He also sought to know what then the role of oversight agencies, including constitutional commissions, independent offices and specialised investigative agencies would be, if Parliament took over primary inquiries, which are the core functions of those agencies. On his part, hon. Francis Nyenze, the Leader of Minority Coalition, wondered why the chairpersons of the two key Committees investigating the Westgate Mall terror attack rushed to appear to make conclusions, claiming to defend the offices they were investigating over alleged omissions or commissions before the joint committees concluded their investigations. In addition, most Members who rose wanted to know what the scope of the investigations by committees would be. They sought to know why the House and its committees cannot provide enough time for various Government agencies to conclude investigations before Parliament is seized of the matter citing, the case of the US Congress that had to wait for specialized state agencies to conduct investigations on the Twin Tower terror attack before embarking on a further oversight function."
}