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{
    "id": 862284,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/862284/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 314,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Murkomen",
    "speaker_title": "The Senate Majority Leader",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 440,
        "legal_name": "Onesimus Kipchumba Murkomen",
        "slug": "kipchumba-murkomen"
    },
    "content": "term for people who are appointed to the board of trustees must be clearly defined. There is also one provision in the board of trustees on persons representing trade unions. It is not possible to have one representative of trade unions in a pension scheme like this one who also nominates themselves internally to become ‘Mugabes’ of pension schemes. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, at least, there is a provision that limits them in this law. I hope that the NSSF and the National Hospital Insurance Fund (NHIF) will do the same. There are people who lecture us about good governance structures and management of public affair but they have never left their offices for about 30 years. The dictatorship that is in these entities is like what we see in trade unions, which is a contradiction. This is because the movement of trade unions in this country as started by Tom Mboya, Harry Thuku and others was meant to fight for independence, good governance and democracy. They were fighting for the right to work and freedom of the country. Therefore, we cannot now have people who run trade unions and perpetuate themselves eternally. This behaviour must come to an end. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, if we can limit the time for a person who seeks votes from people and the whole universal adult suffrage, we must limit for these other people. I am happy the Bill says so. We must also limit the term for the Chief Executive Officer (CEO). Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, the Bill talks about appointment of an administrator who is a public officer to be appointed by the board. There are suggestions that people are concerned about the existing schemes at the moment which had room for appointing private administrators to perform these functions. That must be analyzed and an explanation given to those who think that private administrators must be put. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, the reason why many people started to lose faith in public institutions is because of absence of accountability, transparency, corruption and so forth. As a matter of fact, there is no corruption in Government that is not perpetuated by the private sector. For every corruption in Government, the first accomplices are the private sector, for example, the Goldenberg and Anglo Leasing scandals. Therefore, we cannot say that the private sector is better in fighting corruption than the public sector. We must say that corruption, whether by the public or the private sector must be dealt with. This is because the names of all the scandals that we have in this country are attached to a company that is private because they are the ones who perpetuate that kind of thing. Therefore, we must be careful. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, when the Chair makes his contribution he will deal with the technical issues which includes the amount of contribution which the law says will be 7.5 per cent. Remember, this law is about the second tier of contribution. The primary tier of contribution in the country is NSSF. Those who are practitioners in pension law and in practice will have more explanations that are empirical and calculated for purposes of deductions and provisions of pensions. This law also has provisions which I want to emphasize but I do not want to take more time. The Chairperson has told me that he would love to respond to this Bill and the Senate Minority Leader would like to spend an hour making jurisprudential contributions to this Bill. Probably, that will be for him next week. I want to ensure that I give some of the time to the Chairperson to respond. The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposes only. Acertified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor, Senate."
}