HTTP 200 OK
Allow: GET, PUT, PATCH, DELETE, HEAD, OPTIONS
Content-Type: application/json
Vary: Accept
{
"id": 522691,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/522691/?format=api",
"text_counter": 99,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Hon. Limo",
"speaker_title": "",
"speaker": {
"id": 1915,
"legal_name": "Joseph Kirui Limo",
"slug": "joseph-kirui-limo"
},
"content": "that when one is not able to secure a tender one simply goes to court. From my experience, I can say that the courts have suddenly been taken over by activists. We will never get any justice if that trend continues. So, to ensure that posterity in this country will benefit, we must make laws which will ensure that nobody, including the courts, has the leeway to ensure that everything stands still. Therefore, we must be careful about this procurement administrative body, which is going to hear disputes arising from procurement processes. I am deeply concerned about the formation of this body. It is even stated here that the establishment of regional panels is to be done to ensure that the functions and powers of the review board are implemented. We have to be very careful here because this particular clause is too general; it is not stating which region. Remember that when you become petty, you can even set up a board at the district level. Such boards will be subject to misuse. They could be abused by people if they are founded at the district level. In my opinion, for these boards to be effective, they must be very high level, so that you do not just complain because you want to derail the process. Through amendments, we should actually try to make it very difficult for people to just complain without any justification. At the same time, we need to be fair to the people who are complaining. This Bill, hon. Speaker, is also proposing to set aside some portion of tenders for the people who are disadvantaged, that is the youth, women and people with disabilities. In the current Act, there is no provision on the percentage the youth are allocated. However, this was done in regulations, which were developed by the Cabinet Secretary. We found that was a very dangerous trend because there was no law to back them. These amendments went through in the last Session. However, now that the Act is being repealed by this new Bill, we have to make it very clear. Under Clause 158 (4), we must specify that 30 per cent of the value of tenders which are given by either national Government or the county government are given to the people with disabilities, youth and women. We will also try to propose that this law be made more specific, because we know that the youth and the people with disabilities, in one way or the other, are not aggressive. They are actually faced with many challenges, including the fact that some of them are still pursuing their careers and, therefore, they do not get access to real information and capital. So, given that they are challenged in those respects, we want to propose that we go further and divide this 30 per cent, so that 10 per cent goes to the youth, 10 per cent to the people with disabilities and another 10 per cent to the women. In so doing, we will be helping our youth and people with disability. When we group those marginalised groups together they are likely to be marginalised further. This is because women have the advantage of being aggressive and at the same time they are helped by their husbands to raise capital. In the process the youth are actually put in a corner and they can easily drift into oblivion. Hon. Speaker, one other thing that is not very good for this country is variation. It is one of the things that have brought our country to its knees. Some of the projects go for a very long time without commencing. There are unscrupulous contractors, or business people, who capitalise on the 90 days period within which you can introduce variations. Any price variation which is significant in a contract can only be effected within 12 months of the contract. We are aware that some people who specialise in heavy 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."
}