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{
    "id": 568493,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/568493/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 138,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. (Ms.) Abdalla",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 382,
        "legal_name": "Amina Ali Abdalla",
        "slug": "amina-abdalla"
    },
    "content": "called premeditated corruption. You will never capture them. Even if you put them in a list of shame, there is nowhere a Cabinet Secretary (CS) signs. You can only capture the accounting authority. Let us tell one another the truth. We are not going anywhere with this law, as it is. In fact, I hear that there were two persons who were experts in this business of evading the EACC. They said that in Kenya all you need is to know the people holding the following four offices or know a person who knows them. You either know the person pulling the strings in EACC, a powerful judge and the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP); if you want you can also add the Director of Criminal Investigations. You do not need to know them personally. You just need to know a person who knows them. In essence, this is just a game in window dressing. However, I want to deal with a matter that is a hangover from the Coalition Government and no subsequent legislation deals with it. Hon. Jakoyo, you should listen to this. During the Coalition Government, one side did not trust the persons who were heading certain institutions. So, what we did to remedy that was that for any powerful and important institution, we decided that the recruitment would be done through a recruitment panel, so that the two sides of the coalition would be comfortable. We set up recruitment panels consisting of representatives of the Judicial Service Commission (JSC), human rights groups and others. There were about seven institutions that were basically put in every recruitment panel. They took the job of the institution that then was responsible for recruitment on behalf of the Executive, that is the Public Service Commission (PSC). Now, even after the coalition ended, we seem to introduce these recruitment panels in new legislation. The other day I saw it in the recruitment of the Auditor-General. In this one we also have a panel. For example, if a representative of the JSC or the Gender and Equality Commission is not available, the Government is left to wait for that individual who has been nominated by that body to constitute a panel. I know that the law is not applied retroactively. I have already spoken with the Chair of the Departmental Committee on Justice and Legal Affairs. In this case, let us begin by changing these recruitment panels. Why do we not have trust in institutions that we in this House have set up? I am going to propose an amendment that the job of recruiting these commissioners be put where it is supposed to be, in the PSC. I urge hon. Members that in all subsequent recruitments where we are talking about recruitment panels, all I need to do--- I do not even know the PSC Commissioners. I only know Margaret Kobia. However, I know every panellist that these organisations are going to send. So, if I want to lobby for my constituent, I know whom I am going to talk to. So, let us not create something to solve a problem when the PSC is still there. Hon. Speaker, now we have a crisis. I urge the Chair of the Departmental Committee on Justice and Legal Affairs that the problems in this Bill are beyond just the commissioners. Let us solve the crisis we have now and recruit them. Let us look at the fact that we are not wining this war. The only way to win it is for us to look beyond just the secretariat versus the Commission problem; let us look at the day to day running of the Commission. I know that many of us have toyed with the idea of giving prosecutorial powers to the Commission. For some time, I had bought into that. However, what killed my enthusiasm for having a Commission with prosecutorial powers is the speed at which their airtight cases get dismantled by the DPP and vice versa. I would not support prosecutorial powers because we got the best brains and we are 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."
}