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{
    "id": 523313,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/523313/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 146,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. (Ms.) Kanyua",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 981,
        "legal_name": "Priscilla Nyokabi Kanyua",
        "slug": "priscilla-nyokabi-kanyua"
    },
    "content": "and the Kenyan went to visit the Malaysian. When the Kenyan went to visit the Malaysian, he was welcomed to a beautiful palatial home. He realised that the Malaysian had a beautiful home. He welcomed the Kenyan, showed him a road and said: “My friend, enjoy my home.” The Kenyan asked: “How did you acquire this home?” The Malaysian Minister opened the window and showed his friend the road and said: “Do you see that road out there? When they were building that road, I took 10 per cent of the money and put up this home.” The time for the Malaysian visiting the Kenyan came. The Kenyan Minister’s home was not a home; it was a full estate – a palace with many homes around it. The Kenyan also opened the window and said to the Malaysian: “Do you see that road?” and the Malaysian said: “I see no road.” The Kenyan said again: “Look carefully, there is a road.” The Malaysian said: “I see no road.” The Kenyan Minister said: “I took 100 per cent of the road money.” Hon. Speaker, as we critique the public procurement law, this is what we are talking about: A country that has decided not to invest its money in development but use the procurement law as a way of individuals enriching themselves. As the National Assembly and the Eleventh Parliament, we have a duty to seal all the loopholes in our procurement law and ensure that we do not have such scenarios. At the worst, we could have the Malaysian scenario, where 10 per cent of the money goes missing, and not 100 per cent of the money. I speak as a Member of the Jubilee Coalition, with a very heavy manifesto on development. In order for us to be able to live to that manifesto, again, procurement becomes very important for us. In this country, everybody has become a procurement official. If you go to our public hospitals, you will find doctors not in patients’ wards treating people; you will find them sitting in the hospitals’ procurement committees. If you go to Government offices, you will find that a half of the staff members are in tendering committees. If you go to our commissions, again, most of our staff members are involved in procurement. This is what we are saying must stop. We have a good procurement law which allows us to move forward and embrace processes which can take care of some of these issues. Hon. Speaker, again, the question of values comes in. Do we want to develop as a country? Do we want to have value for money, in terms of procurement of goods and services that we have? In order for us to have value for money, we have to ensure that we derail and curtail the stalled projects. We are moving so fast into procurement without taking time to find out whether the project is viable or visible. All of us are in a hurry to procure. As we come to the end of the financial year – every May and June – everybody is in a procurement crunch, just to exhaust the budgetary allocations. This is causing us to have so many stalled projects, which are half-way complete. Most of them consume up to about 80 per cent of the project cost but they are not put into use because they could not be completed. In the procurement law that we are seeking to pass for our country, we have got to make sure that this does not continue to happen. As we pass this law, we have to make sure that the corruption that has affected this country is curtailed and have a clear difference between doing business with Government and engaging in corruption. Doing business with the Government is, of course, alright but doing business with Government also means that people make realistic profits. We have a country where doing business with Government means you make 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."
}