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"speaker_name": "Sen. Halake",
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"content": "Thank you, Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir. I also rise to support the Report of the Select Committee on the removal from office by impeachment of Gov. Granton Samboja. Mr. Temporary, Speaker, Sir, a lot has been said about this Report. Even though the governor did not appear before the Senate, he had his chance to do so. Yes, we have seen that a lot of the allegations made against him did not have enough evidence to support his impeachment, however, with that said, looking at this Report, one of the things that was very clear to me is that this Committee has clearly conducted itself in accordance with Article 96 of the Constitution. This Article stipulates that the Senate represents and serves to protect county governments. I see this report more as supporting devolution than a particular governor. Mr. Temporary, Speaker, Sir, a lot of the allegations that were leveled against the governor were not substantiated. Therefore, according to the law, where you must then be proven guilty through substantiation, to that extent, I really support the findings of the Committee and the recommendations they have made. Mr. Temporary, Speaker, Sir, looking at the allegations leveled against the Governor; having read the CPAIC report on the financial operations of the 20 counties that we discussed earlier on today, a lot of these allegations are also contained in all the financial management aspects of all the counties. The Auditor-General’s Report raised a lot of these issues as enumerated in a similar manner that was used to level the allegations to impeach the Governor of Taita Taveta. Therefore, the question around the threshold or the application of certain standards for impeachment need to be looked at by this House so that we do not bog ourselves down in looking at these things. Mr. Temporary, Speaker, Sir, I do not believe that two wrongs make a right, or that 47 wrongs make one right. We must then try to make sure that we put legislation or certain frameworks that clearly spell out what the threshold for the impeachment of a governor should be. This is because this is an issue that cuts across almost all counties after reading the financial accounts as well as the Auditor-Generals’ Report. As it has been said by most of my colleagues, the absence of evidence does not necessarily mean that he is innocent. The Committee did very well to take it to an independent institution to look further into these issues, because we still bear the duty of oversight, as the Senate. Therefore, the fact that we could not find evidence should be the end of the story. Mr. Temporary, Speaker, Sir, I am very proud of this Committee, who I am told worked so hard and stayed up to 2 a.m. to do this job. I am proud of them for having dispensed of this very quickly, but also very fairly; and for coming up with its conclusion. Having investigated the matter in accordance with its mandate under Section 33(4) of the County Governments Act and Standing Order 75(2) of the Senate, that it finds none of the particulars of the allegations against the governor to have been substantiated. That does not mean that the Governor is not culpable. Therefore, as other Senators have said, I hope that a way of processing this further will be achieved. Doing that will ensure that we do not fail in our duty of oversight and financial stewardship or the oversight of misconduct of our governors does not get lost in all this. The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor, Senate."
}