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"content": "from the best universities in the world – The University of Nairobi and The University of Leeds – was running away from public service, this lady committed herself to serving the nation in the public service in many places. For about 35 years, she served in Ministries of industrial development, co-operative development, the Vice Presidents’ Office, the Ministry of Agriculture and many other places. Therefore, in terms of her professional and academic qualifications, we were completely convinced that she is very qualified to serve in that Commission. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, in terms of appreciation of the mandate of the Committee, we also thought she understood the needs of this Commission of Inquiry and the desire to ensure that Makueni is moving forward. She had the interests of Makueni at heart, being a resident of Makueni – which fact I will come to in a short while. When it comes to potential conflict of interest, with all due respect to the qualifications of the very distinguished lady, we had a little bit of a challenge. That challenge emanated from the fact that she has, in the past, been involved in trying to bring together the Governor and the MCAs through the association of professionals from Makueni. We were impressed because at her age, about five years ago – she just retired from public service – she was already a member of the Akamba Council of Elders. This shows her integrity and the respect that people have for her. But our fear was that since she had been involved in dealing with the two sides, that would be a potential minefield, particularly when it came to her views about the MCAs. She had stronger views against the MCAs when it comes to their qualifications, their capacity to appreciate issues and so on, and so forth. But then – and I shall be saying this later – that was weighed against the scale of her confirmation that, be that as it may, she was still level headed enough to deal with the interests of that county. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, on political affiliations, we were completely convinced that she was not politically affiliated to any side of the county or any political party. On the question of residence, we again had a little bit of a challenge because for the 35 years she has served in the public service, of course definitely she had to be in Nairobi because of her job, although she confirmed to us that once in two weeks, she would travel back to her home---. We, therefore, weighed her abilities – the fact that she has been travelling home, that she has a home in Makindu, which is in the same county and that is where her late husband is buried. We were convinced that balancing the two – although she has not been living in Makueni for very long periods of time because of public service – she had a lot of interest in the county and that she had the county at heart despite the fact that she was married in a different county. This is by virtue of the fact that she still set their home in the same Makueni County. We were, therefore, convinced on the issue of residence, that she was qualified enough to be called a resident of Makueni. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, we were also convinced that she understood the responsibilities before her and, therefore, weighing the two – and I want to be transparent here because that is provided for in the report; for those who are following the final recommendations, because I want to marry them together so that I complete – you will find in page 53 that the Committee eventually approved her to serve in this Commission despite the fact that--- 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."
}