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{
    "id": 797495,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/797495/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 172,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. Ng’ongo",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 110,
        "legal_name": "John Mbadi Ng'ong'o",
        "slug": "john-mbadi"
    },
    "content": "appropriated by the Act. So now, as a Government, you are allowed to spend money and seek Parliament’s approval later and within two months. As agencies, departments and ministries spend, they must seek the authority of the National Treasury. The Cabinet Secretary in charge of National Treasury must give authority even though the authority from Parliament comes later. The question is: What did the people of Kenya have in mind when they were allowing Cabinet Secretary this excess powers and this latitude to allow Government ministries and department to spend money which is not appropriated? It was believed that the Treasury would exercise professionalism and caution. It is becoming apparent that as the Leader of the Majority said, the Treasury is misusing the powers that they are given by the Constitution which they were given in trust by the people of Kenya. Therefore, Parliament must rein in on the Treasury to control and check the amounts that are spent under Article 223. I do not want to belabor the point that the Mover of the Motion, the Leader of the Majority Party and the Seconder, Hon. Lessonet have spoken about. We are being asked as a House to approve Kshs1.5billion to pay for this land in Ruaraka. This is just partial payment. It is money that has been paid already for your information, but we are being asked to sanitise it through this Supplementary Budget but there is a further Kshs1.7 billion awaiting to be paid. That is Kshs3.2 billion for a 13.5 acre piece of land in Ruaraka. I saw the land values released just the other day and I did not see Ruaraka being categorised as one of the areas where land would go for Kshs250 million per acre. What is of concern is when we were interrogating this matter; we were told that this amount was released under Article 223. Article 223 provides that this amount be only paid for matters that are emergency in nature or so critical to this country that they cannot wait for parliamentary approval. But the National Treasury allowed this money to be paid and when you ask the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology under whose vote this money has been released, they tell you point-blank that, “As a Ministry, we were a conduit.” A conduit for who? That is what the people of Kenya want to know. When you ask the Ministry of Lands, they look confused and yet they are the same ones who are investigating this matter. In fact, we interrogated the Chairperson of the Departmental Committee on Lands and it was not coming out clearly why they have brought a report with that amount in it and they have not questioned it. I am happy this is in the spirit of the President’s speech yesterday: that we must help the Executive fight corruption. One of the benefits of the handshake is going to help this House to rein in on the Executive. In fact, the casualties will be people like the National Treasury who still think that this House will be divided by partisan political interests and we would not interrogate this matter. In fact, those who are saying that there will be no opposition in this House and that now there will be no accountability and oversight of Government, will be shocked. This is because now we are going to oversee the Government without any partisan thinking. We are now going to work as a Parliament and look at these figures and interrogate the Budget and expenditure with objectivity and without any subjectivity. Therefore, it is a warning to the Executive that those who have been cutting corners, your time is up."
}