Entry Instance

HTTP 200 OK
Allow: GET, PUT, PATCH, DELETE, HEAD, OPTIONS
Content-Type: application/json
Vary: Accept

{
    "id": 896509,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/896509/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 89,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Kikuyu, JP",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Kimani Ichung’wah",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 1835,
        "legal_name": "Anthony Kimani Ichung'Wah",
        "slug": "anthony-kimani-ichungwah"
    },
    "content": "I remember late last year, His Excellency the President gave a directive that all public procurement in Government Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) must be made public, open and transparent. He ordered that MDAs must publish results of all their procurement engagements detailing who they have awarded a certain contract, for how much and even making disclosure as to who are the directors of particular companies that have been awarded tenders. I am yet to see any ministry, including the Office of the President that has started publishing names of the people they award tenders to supply police choppers and police insurance. This House has a responsibility and duty to support the President in this war and also to safeguard public resources that we appropriate in every budget for use in procurement of public goods and services. I noted in one of the dailies yesterday that the issue, for instance, of land in Ruaraka has now come back to this House through the Public Accounts Committee (PAC). I want to challenge Members in this House and, particularly, Members of PAC not to let what happened in the Senate to happen in this House. If we are truly genuine and honest in the fight against corruption, we must get to the root cause of what happened in Ruaraka. Unlike those issues that we are hearing now of losses of Kshs21 billion where we cannot tell where the money was lost, in Ruaraka we can tell that there was an actual Kshs1.5 billion that was paid out. There are issues on how that money was shared. That information was in the public domain. I challenge the Chair of the PAC, let us see this House act decisively if we, indeed, intend to support the President in the fight against corruption. We cannot just be talking about the fight against corruption. That is what the President referred to as narratives of political innuendos and vigilante justice. We will not win this war that way. On the issue of security and bringing our nation together, I was rather taken aback this week when I read in the dailies that a Principal Secretary (PS), a mere PS, is now answering back the Deputy President, a constitutional office on matters to do with security. I was among those whose security was withdrawn for no reason. I said I was okay, so long as that security was being withdrawn to safeguard the interests and the security of millions of other Kenyans. I beg you to give me one minute, Hon. Speaker, to finish that point. Those charged with our security in the Office of the President must not be seen in any way to be playing politics with the security of not just of Members of Parliament, but with the security of any single Kenyan in this country."
}