Entry Instance

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

{
    "id": 70736,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/70736/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 282,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "36 Wednesday, 15th December, 2010(A) Mr. Kathuri",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "Thank you, Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, for assisting me to answer my colleague. For sure, we were investigating the board and I am saying very, very clearly that there are anomalies with the composition of the board and not with the appointment of the CEO. It is just that the CEO happens to be seen as if he was being favoured, yet he was not the only Kenyan who would have met those specified qualifications. Appointments of parastatal boards are at times very disturbing. Some of them are done very competently while others are done in a very shoddy way. They should be based on merit. In this specific case, we can surely and clearly say that it was not based on merit. If you look at their qualifications, all of them are wanting. There is no other explanation that we can give other than just to say that it was a shoddy job, and it has to be repeated if we want to see KBC on the right path. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, the KBC is a very strategic parastatal. It has the best satellite dishes in the country and enjoys very wide coverage. It is accessible by all Kenyans from all corners of this country; so, it should be able to do extremely well. Unfortunately, it cannot because of having a poor composition of the board. In terms of ideas, they cannot assist the CEO to polish up decisions which can be implemented and make this strategic parastatal perform better than it is doing. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, look at the opportunities it has, including the right to the exclusive coverage of our proceedings in this Chambers. This gives it a head- start, yet it is not even able to break even. It is very worrying. It is high time that the Ministry gets committed and ensures that we have the right composition of the board. The CEO, however polished he may be, needs to have a board that can assist him, so that he can roll out better programmes, which will make the corporation become more attractive and make money rather than making losses all the time, as we can see from its records. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, there is a lot that we can say but I would want to say, let us be very clear. Even if you have a very good CEO, if the board is not competent, it will be difficult for them to perform. Let us steer clear of mixing the two; the CEO has been recruited and he is in office very legally, as far as the board is concerned. The board is the one that ought to assist him further, so that he can get better results for the parastatal. With those remarks, I support."
}