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{
    "id": 896641,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/896641/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 221,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Kisumu East, Independent",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Shakeel Shabbir",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 140,
        "legal_name": "Ahmed Shakeel Shabbir Ahmed",
        "slug": "shakeel-shabbir"
    },
    "content": " Thank you, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker. First, I want to support and laud the President for the Speech that he gave the other day. This is the third time I have heard the Speech and every time, we are pleasantly surprised. This time, the President made it very clear that he is committed to the fight against corruption. In 2015, we were one of the countries in the world where over seven cabinet secretaries and a number of other very senior Government officers were asked to step aside and they did. When we go to conferences sometimes - and I chair the African Parliamentarians Network against Corruption - this is one of the positives that we discuss. The way the world sees Kenya is based upon actions that it takes. However, there are people in the Western world who always tell us that we are corrupt, that Kenya is number this and that. I urge the President, now that he is in China, to take it up with the Chinese. Why is China so strict about grand corruption in its country, where they even execute corrupt individuals, yet they export corruption to Africa? Why is it so? We need to understand. We are asking. Now that the President is in China, that issue must be taken up. We also need to learn from the Chinese that sometimes we need to be firm. I would love to see a situation where we are firm with corrupt individuals. In this country, somebody steals a cob of maize, he is jailed. Another one steals Kshs100 billion or Kshs100 million and he pays a fine or bail of Kshs500,000. This is not going to happen. We do not want this. Kenya has suffered the effects of corruption for a long time. We hear in South Africa there was State capture. State capture in South Africa may only have occurred 15 to 20 years ago. State capture in Kenya has been there since 1980’s. It started when civil servants were allowed to take on other jobs and do business. That is when tenderpreneurship started. We are the kings of State capture. We have made it an art. When plunder becomes a way of life for groups in the society, over the course of time, they will create for themselves a legal system that authorises it and a moral code that even glorifies it. That is what we are facing. The only way you can cut out a cancer is to be specific, precise, exact and firm. If you have to cut off that arm, cut it off. Let us not say we are waiting for this or that. I want to plead with the President that this time, all his Big Four Agenda should be challenged. You must act now. We are tired of being told that we are following the procedure. That is fine 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."
}