Entry Instance

HTTP 200 OK
Allow: GET, PUT, PATCH, DELETE, HEAD, OPTIONS
Content-Type: application/json
Vary: Accept

{
    "id": 517207,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/517207/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 227,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "March 10, 2015 SENATE DEBATES 28 Sen. Nabwala",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, I rise to add my voice in support of the Public Fundraising Bill which was brought to the Floor of this House by Sen. (Prof.) Anyang’-Nyong’o and his team. I congratulate them because in the past, harambees were abused. I remember we used to have politicians contributing a lot of money for construction of classrooms in many schools throughout the country. However, they would go back to those schools the following day and collect the money that was raised because they were friends to principals. In the eyes of people, they seemed to have contributed money when in actual fact, they had not contributed anything to that school. It used to happen and I have full proof of that. However, we should not forget that the spirit of harambee is a very good idea because our own people in the counties are very poor. Some of them come from slum areas and they do not have sufficient money to either pay for their medical bills or for burial. I remember I went to a slum area called Rafiki. As I was passing, I was told there was a dead body. An old lady had died in a small hut. I went in to see the dead body. We found the lady lying on a gunia covered with a very old blanket. The person in charge was a very young girl of about 12 years. She had a book sourcing for the harambee. In the book, you could see people had contributed Kshs10, Kshs20 and so forth. Poverty is rampant in the country. Our people need us, as politicians to help them. They voted for us so that we work for them. Therefore, we should not dismiss harambees at the grassroots level. Harambees should be there even if we regulate them. We cannot regulate a harambee meant to raise Kshs10,000 or Kshs5,000 for school fees for a child, help in a burial of somebody or to pay for medical bills. There are common harambees like what I see around. The trend is where a Senator goes to a harambee to meet the Governor or Member of National Assembly and they contribute Kshs2 million or Kshs3million. As a Senator, maybe you have Kshs5,000 or Kshs10,000. That is why we need full accountability. If somebody’s salary is below the amount he is contributing, where are they getting a lot of money to lure the voters around? In the end, the common"
}