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{
    "id": 578968,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/578968/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 49,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. Ng’ongo",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 110,
        "legal_name": "John Mbadi Ng'ong'o",
        "slug": "john-mbadi"
    },
    "content": "So, I want to conclude by saying that I have no doubt in my mind that any State entity should be overseen by the National Assembly. That should happen for decency. If the two Houses get engaged in the same exercise and they arrive at two different conclusions, it will cause confusion and unnecessary fights between them. I want to conclude from where I begun; that the people of Kenya need to decide to make the Senate the Upper House. I say this with a heavy heart because I see the Senate engaged in a very useful exercise. However, I ask myself whether that exercise should be done by the Senate. I see the Senate going to counties and asking even about furniture bought in offices. I ask myself if the Senate has to leave Nairobi to go to Homa Bay to find out if furniture was bought there. Then why do we pay the 60 something plus Members of the County Assembly (MCAs) that we have in Homa Bay? I ask that question. I see that the Senate is doing a good job. I agree with them. They are confirming that some of the monies have been misused. However, I ask myself: “Why is this country paying almost 2,000 MCAs?” They are supposed to ensure that counties buy the furniture and the roads that are claimed to have been done are done. Therefore, the Senate should exercise a very general oversight responsibility and come up with recommendations in a broad perspective covering more than one county. Specific Public Accounts Committees (PACs) of those counties need to do that. I wonder when the National Assembly will go to the Ministry of Justice, National Cohesion and Constitutional Affairs, for example, to see if a desk was bought there. That would not be tidy for the National Assembly. We rely on what the auditors bring to the National Assembly. We only go to the field to see if it is something that is so serious like the purchase of the Chief Justice’s house and it is running into millions and we feel that the price is not right. As I conclude, the Senate should get some work. I have no doubt that the people of Kenya did not give the Senate enough work. We need to give the Senate enough work and make it the Upper House. By the way, I would not object anyone from making the Senate the Upper House, so that it is clearly distinct as the Upper House and vets whatever we do in the National Assembly. If you leave it the way it is, and I can see some of my colleagues are not happy, at the risk of being misunderstood, as it stands, we have given the Senate a very big name. Elsewhere in the world, the Senate is the Upper House. The people of Kenya made the National Assembly the Upper House and made the Senate the Lower House, which is not found anywhere in the world."
}