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{
    "id": 874349,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/874349/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 312,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. M. Kajwang’",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13162,
        "legal_name": "Moses Otieno Kajwang'",
        "slug": "moses-otieno-kajwang"
    },
    "content": "Madam Temporary Speaker, I fear that we have a situation where we are trying to democratize punishment by spreading it to as many people as possible. However, having read the report alongside the appendices that were tabled before this House, some of the fears that I had have been laid bare. The amendment sought not to delete the responsibility of the Cabinet Secretaries for National Treasury and the Ministry of Agriculture and Irrigation, but to add the Inter-Ministerial Taskforce. Madam Temporary Speaker, the report that we picked from the table did not have the detailed appendices. The question on my mind is this; who is the Inter-Ministerial Committee? The report that we received described the Inter-Ministerial Committee as comprising the Presidency, the Ministry of Agriculture and Irrigation and others. I was left at loss to imagine that we want to assign responsibility for opening the floodgates and the subsequent flooding of maize in the markets to the Presidency, which includes President Uhuru Kenyatta, Deputy President William Ruto and others. That would be spreading responsibility out too thin. I have since seen the appendix that has the gazette notice of the Inter-Ministerial Committee, which has identified and defined the persons who should be held responsible. The only concern that might be outstanding was on the issue of natural justice. Parliament has gone through moments; for example, there was the Akiwumi Report, where a Member of Parliament (MP), the late Nicholas Biwott – may God rest his soul in peace – went to court and convinced it to expunge his name from a report that had been adopted by Parliament. He did that on the basis that he was not given an opportunity to defend himself. That is the only fear that remains. Did the Committee invite the Inter- Ministerial Committee and give it a chance to defend, represent and state its case? Madam Temporary Speaker, I do not know whether in these kind of Motions, the opening statement is more important than the closing one. My opening statement was one of opposition; however, my closing statement is one of support, having looked at the documents that the Committee has brought before us."
}