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{
    "id": 683543,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/683543/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 243,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. Keynan",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 41,
        "legal_name": "Adan Wehliye Keynan",
        "slug": "adan-keynan"
    },
    "content": "You remember recently we have had challenges with the National Youth Service (NYS). We have two critical youth-related institutions in this country, namely, the NYS and the YEDF. In the last two years, these two institutions have been bedevilled with challenges related to financial misappropriation. Where will our youth resort to for financial, technological and other forms of assistances? Another observation that we made in this investigation is that His Excellency the President, via Gazette Notice of 15th April 2016, in accordance with Section 7(3) of the State Corporations Act 446, revoked the appointment of Mr. Bruce Odhiambo. We want to appreciate the actions of His Excellency the President because immediately we were seized of this and realised that Mr. Bruce Odhiambo was an accomplice in this, we made an appeal to His Excellency the President. For the first time, even before the conclusion of our Report, one Bruce Odhiambo was sacked as the Chairman of the YEDF and Ms. Catherine Namuye was sent on compulsory leave. This is supposed to be the way. You can imagine if the President would have waited for the tabling of this Report, debate and adoption of the Report, Bruce Odhiambo and his cohort, Catherine Namuye, would by now have fleeced the entire YEDF and it would be a shell. Therefore, I want to accord our appreciation to His Excellency the President, through the Head of the Civil Service, for this timely action. I hope in future, other Government agencies emulate this whenever there is a suspicious issue, so that taxpayers’ money is safeguarded. In 2013, the Funds board recommended to the Principal Secretary (PS), State Department of Planning, Eng. Mangiti, who is also suspended, for the appointment of the substantive Chief Executive Officer. Why would an acting CEO manage a Government agency for over four years? This is suspicious. When somebody is acting, he is not independent. He cannot act judiciously because when you are acting, you fear that the acting privilege will either be removed or you will not be confirmed. The appointing authorities must be conscious of this issue. They should not allow acting CEOs to manage critical Government agencies because it is going to be a prelude to mismanagement and other financial malpractices. A circular dated 18th July, 2007 by the former Head of Civil Service gave clear guidelines on how some of these organisations should be managed. That has completely been disregarded and we hope the current Head of Civil Service ensures that circulars which constitute some sources of law in Kenya are respected. Before the launch of the Mwongozo Code of governance for State corporations, there was no single policy that provided a complete code. It has been flouted. It has not been implemented and adhered to. Therefore, it remains a paper in the shelves like many other papers that we have seen. Boards did not comply with it and I do not understand why a presidential circular is disregarded. A presidential directive constitutes one of the sources of law in our governance structure. We hope the Executive in charge of these particular organisations will reflect and take this into account, so that we are not just a country that generates beautiful papers and ideas and throws them to the shelves without proper adherence and implementation. The Committee recommends the following:- That, the National Treasury constitutes a multi-Government agency team composed of responsible State departments and the Inspectorate of State Corporations to review corporate governance issues at the YEDF, performance of various projects since its inception and undertake a value for money audit of the Fund since inception. We realised that the framers or the founding fathers of this critical public investment had a noble idea, but it is not being implemented. We have serious underemployment and unemployment affecting our youth. We need to come up with policies that are tailor-made for the"
}