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{
    "id": 797473,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/797473/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 150,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. Ichung’wah",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 1835,
        "legal_name": "Anthony Kimani Ichung'Wah",
        "slug": "anthony-kimani-ichungwah"
    },
    "content": "I want to reiterate the words of His Excellency the President yesterday: That we must get to a situation in this country where issues pertaining corruption or misappropriation of public funds are dealt with decisively. Therefore, without naming anybody, it was the feeling of my Committee that since the matter of Ruaraka High School and Drive-Inn Primary School is under investigation, not just by a committee of this House but also by a committee of the other House, we allow those committees to conclude their work before we approve the payment notwithstanding the concerns we have noted on the application of Article 223. You would ask yourself what it is that was so urgent for land to be paid for using Article 223 while the same would have been brought under the Annual Estimates, which were just months away. We are talking about less than two months away. Therefore, if this payment was done in January this year, there was time for the Ministry concerned and the National Land Commission (NLC) to allow those who oversee public funds in the Committee of Lands to interrogate that payment. Therefore, we do not want, as the Budget and Appropriations Committee, to be seen to be allowing the Government to appropriate funds outside the constitutional framework as provided under Article 223. We have observed and recommended to this House that we hold on the approval of that payment. The question that begs is what happens since this money has already been expended. We have deliberated, as a Committee, on that issue since the money has already been expended and we came to the conclusion that as much as it has been paid, as a Committee, we do not know until the other committees finish their investigations. We consider the payments illegitimate until the other committees conclude their investigations. Should that payment be seen to be okay, in the wisdom of the other committees that are investigating the matter, then the National Treasury, the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology and the NLC will be at liberty to bring back the same appropriation for approval. Our Committee will be more than willing when all is well. We do not want to be the ones to jeopardise the ongoing investigations."
}