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{
    "id": 492919,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/492919/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 226,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. Okoth",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 12482,
        "legal_name": "Kenneth Odhiambo Okoth",
        "slug": "kenneth-odhiambo-okoth"
    },
    "content": "in charge of the Executive and yet the people he has appointed to work for him do things that are contrary to his spirit. I think we really need to look into that. Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, you should let those of us who are politically willing to deal with those people who are sabotaging our Speaker and our Parliament from doing their job. When you look at Article 124 of the Constitution, the power to run our business and affairs, including constituting our committees, does not belong to anybody else. That power neither belongs to the Attorney General nor any functionary in the Executive. So, for members of the Cabinet who were vetted and approved in this House upon nomination by the President to turn around and hide behind some writings and advice of the Attorney General or a functionary in the Executive, they are deceiving themselves. They need to remember who they are accountable to. That way, they will make sure that they come here to answer our questions. Our Constitution is very clear that the work of Parliament involves three things. The first one is legislation. We are here to make good laws for our country. The second one is representation. We are here to make sure that the views of our people and their concerns are well heard. But the biggest value of all the purposes of Parliament is oversight. I think it is this oversight function that has really scared some of the Cabinet Secretaries. What is it they are trying to hide? We know that in a country of corruption where tenders are not awarded in the right way; in a country where audit shows that a lot of money is lost through Government spending and things like that, is there something we believe professional and technocrat would do to run their Ministries differently? Is it that they are afraid to come out and show that they are doing their jobs well and that where they are not doing their job well, they are ready to be shown, they explain and request to be supported to do their job well? However, oversight in my sense is the biggest value addition for this House and for the legislators. I will give an example in the last Parliament where the Budget and some documents came in overly inflated. If the Members of this Parliament and its Committees did not read carefully through the Report and find out that typographical error – we were told it was a typing error or a computer error –it was going to cost hundreds of millions of shillings of taxpayers’ money. That is what we call oversight and diligence."
}