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{
    "id": 719686,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/719686/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 317,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. Kipyegon",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 1453,
        "legal_name": "Johana Ngeno Kipyegon",
        "slug": "johana-ngeno-kipyegon"
    },
    "content": "Thank you, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker for giving me this opportunity to express my support of this Bill. From the outset, like most of the Members of this House, I oppose this Bill. I oppose it because of several reasons. Like everybody knows, this House is vested with the powers to legislate, play oversight role and to represent the people of this Republic. When you decide to erode any of those three areas in which we are vested with powers by the Constitution, then you are eroding the Constitution. As Members of this House and, especially those who belong to particular committees like Public Investments Committee, we are meant to oversee the parastatals and those areas that the Government of the Republic has invested its money in. Parastatals, as all of us know, are investments of this country. They are public investments. This is where public money is normally invested. These parastatals were not meant to make profits per se but to assist in areas where our people would have wished to have investments. For example, the Kenya Cooperative Creameries (KCC) was not meant to make a lot of profits. It was supposed to assist farmers to buy milk, process it and then sell it. The Agricultural Development Corporation (ADC) was meant to assist farmers in researching on the best seeds to provide to farmers such as maize, wheat or any other seed. The Kenya Seed Company (KSC) was meant to research and create the best seed to provide to farmers. When we privatise all these, it must be at the interest of the citizens of this nation. These are their investments. The reason why we are in Parliament is so that we represent the people of the Republic. One of the ways we represent the public is by overseeing these issues of Government by deciding on their behalf whether certain particular parastatals should be privatised. We do not want a situation which we have been seeing where some parastatals are privatised without the knowledge of the public. Even when leases expire, some people are just buying them privately without the public knowing. We have heard of several parastatals which have been sold. We have heard of tea estates where leases expired and then certain individuals buy them. Recently, I heard of one in Kericho where a few individuals have taken a big tea estate of over 500 acres without the knowledge of the county or the Republic. That is stealing from the public. The reason why these people want to deny Parliament the role of oversight is so that they also steal these parastatals and sell them to themselves. The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor."
}