Entry Instance

HTTP 200 OK
Allow: GET, PUT, PATCH, DELETE, HEAD, OPTIONS
Content-Type: application/json
Vary: Accept

{
    "id": 609923,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/609923/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 75,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "June, 15th, 2015 SENATE DEBATES 20 Sen. Ongoro",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, I have been listening keenly to all Members of the Senate ventilating and you can see the frustrations from every Member. What we are witnessing here is representation of what all Kenyans are going through. This morning, I witnessed something very interesting, my car broke down as I was coming to town and I took alternative means. As I was approaching town, there was one young man seated under a tree and he looked like somebody who is jobless. He was having on him a T-shirt written najivunia kuwa mkenya . I came to town and I bought whatever I wanted to ensure that my car was in order. When I was going back, he was still seated under that same tree but he was removing his T-shirt and I was quite shocked because I did not know what he was up to. He had a marker pen in his hand. So, I went back for my car and I passed through the same street. This time round the same man in about 45 minutes had replaced the word najivunia with navumilia kuwa Mkenya . I do not know where we are heading to. I just want us to relook at the provisions of the Constitution, the Bill of Rights and the spirit of the Constitution from the first chapter to the last. The central theme when you read the Constitution is devolution, decentralization of power and oversight of institutions. In fact, the creation of the numerous commissions was to ensure that one Comission oversight another. Therefore, we avoid grand corruption. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, the Senate is a victim of its own mandate, the creation of the Senate as the “Upper House” was informed by this school of thought; that we should create an Upper House called the Senate with express mandate to oversight both the national Government and the county governments. When we had those votes and allocations to facilitate that oversight function, it was not for the enjoyment of Senators. It was actually a very gross underfunding to the Senate but we accepted to take the Kshs1 billion to facilitate, if not for anything, to at least put in place some basic oversight process. I want us to look at these institutions that have been targeted and ask ourselves who is putting in place a scheme of grand corruption in this country. How can we state that we are denying the Judiciary a whopping Kshs800 million? That is the same Judiciary that we expect to prosecute offenders and those who are plundering our public funds yet even the meager resources allocated to them were not enough and we are now withdrawing from them Kshs800 million and expect them to still prosecute the more than 600 cases that are pending. Who is this trying to kill the Judiciary or to punish the Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC)? Are they being punished for being strict and denying some institutions or individuals a lot of allocations? Who is this insisting that we should not now fund the Integrated Financial Management System (IFMS)? This is a system that was well thought out and helps us to ensure that our own funds are well utilized. We now have a system without funding, in essence, we are creating loopholes for people who are used to plundering public funds to continue doing so because we cannot have a system without funding and that means we cannot operate. Who is this who does not want the Senate to exercise its oversight functions when it is the same system that will ensure that all the allocations to county governments and other public institutions are well utilized? In my opinion, this is the biggest corruption 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."
}