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{
    "id": 470411,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/470411/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 140,
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    "content": "Mr. Speaker, Sir, I want to pray to God that he visits the mind and heart of hon. Uhuru, so that everytime we talk to him as his friends and supporters, he has at his side a lot of cotton, so that whenever a sycophant is addressing him, he takes the cotton and plugs his ears. He should have a lot of time to listen to critiques. Without critique, he is going to become no different from the other dictators that have been visited upon Africa. I, therefore, want to assure the hon. President that I will support him unconditionally when he is on the path of addressing the challenges that Kenyans face on a day to day basis. However, that unconditional support will become conditional if it is on the understanding that we shall be converging in the commitment to good governance, especially, zero tolerance to corruption. Mr. Speaker, Sir, the President mentioned only in passing – and it is there in his Speech – the matter of corruption. It was very sad because the country loses Kshs380 billion every year through corruption, and the people who pocket this money, believe it or not – I have been Chairman of the Public Accounts Committee – are none other than us; politicians, senior civil servants, professional lawyers who draw contracts and senior accountants. They are the ones who perpetuate corruption. So, hon. Uhuru should make it his business, that before he talks about the wage bill, he quickly closes those taps of corruption to ensure that this money is available to us. Towards this end, we would like to see the President appoint immediately a substantive chair to the Ethics and Anti- Corruption Commission. It will also do us a lot of good if the President was to put more emphasis on the support for the special division at the courts that deals with anti- corruption matters. I would like to urge the President to support the Chief Justice in this very important matter. Already, we note with a lot of happiness that the Chief Justice has already appointed 60 special magistrates of the rank of principal magistrate, to create a special division that will be listening to cases of corruption and economic crimes. He must be supported. The President should ensure that cases of corruption that were witnessed over the last ten years, are investigated, heard by our judges and determined. If the President has forgotten, I am talking about the Anglo Leasing scandal and the maize scandal. The President was there in the last Parliament when we fought on this issue of the maize scandal and some of the people who sit in high positions in the new arrangement today have reason to answer questions on what happened in the maize scandal. Mr. Speaker, Sir, the National Assembly that we just came from addressed the grand scandal of the printing of new currency notes, where Kshs1.8 billion was lost and pointed a clear finger at who the possible culprits are. This must be concluded. I would like to urge the President to remember that whereas the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) succeeded in pronouncing all of us, him included, as winners, there was a scandal there. You were in the House and participated in the debate when we fought the tender of the Biometric Voter Registration (BVR) kits. We made passionate presentations to the Constitution Implementation Oversight Committee that was chaired by hon. Abdikadir and they refused to listen. It is the same evidence that we were giving at that time that is now the reason the Supreme Court directed that this tender of BVR should be investigated. It would be even more important that the President ensures that there are no new cases of corruption. As I say that, I want the President to 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."
}