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{
"id": 928806,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/928806/?format=api",
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"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Ugenya, MDG",
"speaker_title": "Hon. David Ochieng’",
"speaker": {
"id": 2955,
"legal_name": "David Ouma Ochieng'",
"slug": "david-ouma-ochieng"
},
"content": "of goods and services, accountability in the use of power and the protection of human rights and freedoms. Corporate governance seeks to promote the following ideals: 1. Efficient, effective and sustainable organisations that contribute to the welfare of society. 2. Responsible and accountable organisations. 3. Legitimate organisations that are managed with integrity, probity and transparency. 4. Recognition and protection of stakeholders rights; and above all, 5. Development of good corporate citizens exercising sound corporate social responsibility. In this country, you would imagine that most of our services are done through parastatals. Parastatals are the places where you do business. In this country today, we have more than 1,400 directors of public institutions. If you have been watching lately, almost all the scandals, corruption and bad governance has happened in parastatals. These parastatals are headed by directors, but whenever things happen, the only person you see or hear from is normally the CEO of the parastatal. This Bill is aimed at ensuring that our public corporations, institutions, parastatals, agencies and authorities are run based on sound corporate governance principles. It sinks your heart to know that a very innocent Bill like this one is being fought by none other than the Attorney-General’s Chambers and the State Corporations Advisory Council (SCAC). The SCAC only inducts members of the boards of public institutions. They do not train them. For example, in the last one or two months, about 800 directors have been appointed. They are taken to Naivasha for a day or two days, inducted and then brought back and told: “You are now fit enough to do your job.” What the institute is going to be doing is to institute and mount continuous training and capacity building of directors not just of public institutions, but also of private institutions that have interest in this. It will interest you that the way we manage our public affairs is quite important. In the last 20 years, almost all our parastatals and public institutions have been making losses. The reason is that they are not being run well or in the right way. So, if we are going to have public entities running well, we must agree that one or two days training is not the best way to go. So, this institute is supposed to help us. Whenever we hear corruption, we only hear CEOs. If you have been watching television in the last two weeks, you must have seen the Kerio Valley Development Authority (KVDA) CEO and the National Land Commission (NLC) CEO. You do not hear directors coming on board because they are largely absent. They depend on the CEOs to lead or mislead them on how they run the institutions. So, we want directors of our institutions to be aware and be able to run the institutions with probity, be inquisitive and have the ethos of good governance, so that if it is the Kenya Power, RIVATEX or our standards board, it is run by a board that is competent and that understands the role of the institutions. I hasten to add that the President had some reservations on this Bill when it was taken to him for signature. Why? Largely, people do not want to be controlled. People do not want to be told how to do things. People want to do things haywire. People want a free society where they are doing things without being overseen. This Bill creates a framework where as soon Kenyan citizens are appointed as directors, they report to the institute and go through a six weeks training that prepares them to run the affairs of the boards competently. Part of the reasons why this Bill is back to this House is that there are people who do not want directors to be trained. There are those who do not want directors to have knowledge. There are those who do not want to lose their turfs. If the SCAC’s job is to induct, let them induct the directors, but let them allow the 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."
}