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{
    "id": 501381,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/501381/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 191,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. Gichigi",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 1909,
        "legal_name": "Samuel Kamunye Gichigi",
        "slug": "samuel-kamunye-gichigi"
    },
    "content": "Thank you very much, hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker. I also rise to support this Bill. For one, obviously we must pass this law to comply with the Constitution. Looking at the Constitution, the drafters had very good intentions. They required core values in the public service, even where various organizations and Ministries did not have them. I can see we have mostly repeated what is in the Constitution in this particular Bill. I believe it is difficult to legislate on morality, which this Bill is attempting to do; trying to change the behaviour and culture of the civil servants. It is difficult to say people should be honest. Indeed, it sounds like it is going to be a sermon to civil servants. Nevertheless, it is necessary to remind ourselves as public servants that we need to be good guys. I think, basically, this is what this law is saying. Having said that, I think there are some areas that we need to address. I am looking at Clause 13; it is indicated as Clause 13(7), but it should be sub-clause (4) because the preceding sub-clause is (3). It is says that a person aggrieved by the decision of a service commission may appeal to the High Court against the decision. Actually, what will happen is that you will go, lodge a complaint; if the office does not deal with the issue to your satisfaction, it says you will go to the High Court. That clause is so ambiguous that it does not say what happens when you go to the High Court. How will you go to the High Court? Will it be through a petition or through a suit? What is it you will go to the High Court to seek? When we come to the Committee Stage it will be necessary that we clarify why we will go to the High Court, how we will go to the High Court and what the High Court will actually do when we go before it. We should also explore other ways. I do not think going to court should always be the case. If, indeed, there is dissatisfaction when a certain office investigates an issue, we should, probably, create another forum still within the Government structure to deal with this issue as an alternative dispute resolution mechanism. It needs to be amended and all of us need to think about the way out of it. The other issue is on sanctions. This Bill says that civil servants should do something and do it in a certain way, but there is no single attempt to say what happens if they do not do it; there are no sanctions. Even in a church, the preacher tells us that if you do not behave well, at least you will go to hell. This proposed law does not give any sanctions. I think we should amend it to say if you do not behave well, there will be sanctions to be visited on you. The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor."
}