Entry Instance

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

{
    "id": 944023,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/944023/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 232,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Mutula Kilonzo Jnr.",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13156,
        "legal_name": "Mutula Kilonzo Jnr",
        "slug": "mutula-kilonzo-jnr"
    },
    "content": "seen and okayed. On the face of it, they are right because they had checked. However, we checked and disagreed. The law has no dichotomy as to where the boundaries are. That is the reason as to why Governor Wycliffe Ambetsa Oparanya, became very belligerent in the last Senate, and ended up getting a ruling which said that we have a concurrent function. Yes, it is concurrent but to what extent can we go into the details as compared to the county assemblies? If you sit in a court of concurrent jurisdiction, that is if you are a judge of a High Court and Sen. Murkomen was a judge of a High Court, the ruling of Sen. Murkomen and your ruling as the Speaker, will not be binding. In the case of the county assemblies, when they say that we have a concurrent jurisdiction, are we bound by the decisions of the county assemblies or can we simultaneously have an audit and have separate findings? Who is supposed to resolve the question of the County Assembly of Mombasa okaying the documents of Mombasa County Government and the Committee on County Public Accounts and Investments disagreeing or the Makueni County Assembly Committee on County Public Accounts and Investments agreeing entirely with the audit and not saying anything but we disagree with that? Who is supposed to resolve that? The Constitution does not give a dichotomy. I want to refer to Article 229(7) and (8). Can we find a method where these documents come in the six months? They can go to the Assembly in the first three months and then come to the Senate in the second three months. We can then find a method of dealing with the overarching principles and where a big issue is flagged; we can go and deal with it. Lastly, our solution is a Senate Audit Office. We can have an auditor sitting somewhere on the third or second floor. In the case of Sen. Murkomen’s County where Kshs300 million or Kshs400 million has disappeared, we can send the auditors on our own Motion. Sen. Murkomen can move a Motion and I can second it, then we send the auditors there. Those auditors will then give us a report. Let us look at the case of Kiambu County. Why do we have to wait for Noordin Haji to alert us that somebody is walking around with cash in his boot? The Auditor General and the Controller of Budget had not seen it yet money had been withdrawn from several accounts. In fact, one of the Senators told me that governors from the north eastern frontier are withdrawing money in cash. They can withdraw up to Kshs17 million and put in a box, and that is the end of it. Everything continues as usual. I support this exercise. Sen. M. Kajwang’ should include this in his final recommendation. Let us allow the public to whistle-blow on corruption. They did it in counties like Makueni. Let us not put a formula. Let us allow them to give us that information even if they write a letter on a foolscap using their own handwriting. We will not lay the dragon of corruption if we prescribe to the rules that are in our Standing Orders which insist that the petition has to be in a certain format, typed, written in correct English and have words that suggest that one went to school. To that extent, we will make some progress if all these things can find their way into some law and some practice in the Senate Committee on County Public Accounts and Investments. Otherwise, what we are doing is going on and on like a broken record and nothing is going to happen. It is what Shakespeare used to call, ‘much ado about nothing’. 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."
}