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{
    "id": 70724,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/70724/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 270,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Mr. Chanzu",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 11,
        "legal_name": "Yusuf Kifuma Chanzu",
        "slug": "yusuf-chanzu"
    },
    "content": "Thank you, Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, for giving me this opportunity. I would like to support the Motion that the Minister complies with Section 4(f) of Cap.221. I commend the hon. Member who raised this issue in Parliament the first time. I also commend the Departmental Committee for the work it has done. I also thank the Minister for taking responsibility. This is an eye opener. It is one of the issues that take place in Government corporations or organizations where appointment of directors is vested in a single person, that is, the Minister. I hope that this will be a lesson to the other Ministers who have been vested with this responsibility of appointing board members to such corporations. As you have heard, this is a very important institution in this country, particularly now. It is very clear in the Act that out of the seven members to be appointed in the board, one must have experience or specialization in radio communication and radio communication apparatus; radio and/or television programme production; print media; and financial management and administration. A brief look at the document the Assistant Minister referred to in this House shows that there will be three of them who will be public officers. However, I find that to be contradictory because we are saying that those who hold public offices should not be members of these boards unless they are in private companies. That is something that needs to be looked at. One time I had an opportunity to visit an organization in Tanzania which is equivalent to our Communications Commission a few years back. What they do is that they advertise these positions in the newspapers so that people can apply. This is because there is no point of having a law and then we hide these things. When you just go and call people, that is, your supporters and cronies and tell them to bring CVs because you want to appoint them to various positions without telling them what the qualifications are supposed to be, you will not be helping them. We have got highly qualified people in this country today. Kenyans have trained. They have gone to universities and high colleges of technology. We could very easily source these people through open advertisements. We can get young Kenyans who can run these organizations. In fact, that is why the KBC has been making losses and it cannot compete with the FM stations. If you listen to KBC in the morning and the FM stations, you will not feel like listening to KBC anymore and yet it is supposed to be a channel through which the Government and Kenyans communicate with the outside world and locally. Ministers have been appointing their cronies to positions and it is high time this trend stopped. I saw a qualification in one of the individuals’ CV, that the language he can speak is English, Kiswahili and Pokot (fluently)”. I do not think that is what we are looking for. We are not looking for someone to run a vernacular station. It is in this document that the Chairman has. I think it is a let-down to us because we are now sourcing people internationally. We have the internet where we can get these qualifications easily. I think it is a disgrace if somebody in the USA reads and compares the qualifications of the people who run our radio stations."
}