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{
"id": 809527,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/809527/?format=api",
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"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Suba South, ODM",
"speaker_title": "Hon. John Ng’ongo",
"speaker": {
"id": 110,
"legal_name": "John Mbadi Ng'ong'o",
"slug": "john-mbadi"
},
"content": "I plead with the House that when it comes to matters as touchy as this one, matters bordering on clear cases of corruption, it is important we give each one of us the latitude to express ourselves freely and openly. I do not want to challenge the Chair of the Committee, but the Report has touched on a number of issues. It has mentioned the NLC, starting from the chairman to other commissioners, it has mentioned something to do with the Ministry of Education or Early Education, the National Treasury is mentioned and the Attorney-General is in it. So, the House should allow Members to express themselves, including even what we think should have been included in the recommendations and is not. I do not think that if anyone makes such a recommendation, that the person is out of the Report. So, the MP for Laikipia County, in my view, was very right even to mention a Cabinet Secretary. If the name is left out and she feels it should be included, she is at liberty to recommend that it should be the case. It is clear to me from the evidence and from the investigations that were carried out by the Committee that the process was initiated by the NLC. That is not in doubt to me. This is really hurting because as a country we felt that there were problems with land matters: historical injustices and illegal acquisition of land. In 2010, we created an independent commission because Kenyans could not trust the other three arms of Government to deal with land. The people of Kenya could not trust the Executive because initially, the power to allocate land was with the President through the Commissioner of Lands, but the people of Kenya decided to create the Commission. Our thinking then, and probably we were wrong, was that the Commission would safeguard the interests of Kenyans. Looking at the Report, it has come out clearly that the Commission is not protecting the interest of Kenyans. The Commission has worked in cahoots with other people to defraud Kenyans, which is very unfortunate and something that needs to be investigated properly and punished. I am happy that the Committee has recommended further investigations and prosecution, and that takes me to my next point. The investigation should not just be restricted to the NLC, its chairman and other commissioners, but should go a step further because there is the parent Ministry of Education. It has an accounting officer. The accounting officer requisitioned for funds. When you requisition for funds, you must be certain that the application of the funds is above board and that is what we passed in the Public Finance Management Act; that the accounting officer is held accountable for any expenditure in the Ministry even if that money was further transferred to the NLC. The parent Ministry that requisitioned money and which should have ascertained that all legal requirements are met, that accountability is above board, is that ministry. So, if we have a problem probably with the names, the accounting officer in the Ministry cannot escape liability and responsibility. Further, I see in the Report that the Attorney-General is being excused. I do not agree with the Chairman on that. We have employed the Attorney-General of the Republic of Kenya as the legal advisor to the Government. He is supposed to advise the Government in all matters legal. The AG must carry out with diligence any matter presented to him. He must look at all the aspects of that request and advise accordingly. He cannot tell us that he was only advising on the side of compulsory acquisition. That is not advice that we expect from the Office of the AG. That office has staff who work from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. and earn a salary. We expected the AG to advise the ministries accordingly. In fact, there is no way you can hold the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology accountable and leave out the AG, in my view. How would you do that? The AG advised them to go ahead but when things backfired, they say that they The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposes only. Acertified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor."
}