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{
    "id": 948999,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/948999/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 194,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Nairobi CWR, ODM",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. (Ms.) Esther Passaris",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 12475,
        "legal_name": "Esther Passaris",
        "slug": "esther-passaris"
    },
    "content": "This Government has to find a way to sit with elected leaders and create a fund that would deal with corruption. Majority of the leaders here, every weekend, have to go back to their constituencies to look for money to build a school. If a church leader calls me and says he wants money for a church choir, choir’s uniform, church building or church bus, I tell them: “Pray to God. He is the one who is going to give you. He is the ultimate giver. Why are you asking me? You are the ones who have God. Ask God. Why are you asking me?” They ask us because they think we are politicians and we should have money. The same citizens who call us Mpigs are the same ones when you go and give Kshs5,000… I remember a Member of Parliament from Thika gave Kshs5,000. At that time, I was not a Member of Parliament but I remember people ridiculed and booed her. When you want to give money, you are challenged because if everybody is giving Ksh100 and you give Kshs10, you look like a fool. You even avoid going to certain places. I went on social media and I said I have no money, I was broke. You should have seen the way Kenyans were angry. They said I had a meltdown yet I was telling them the truth. Kenyans do not want to hear the truth. So, the fact is I think we need to have self-talk. Let us stop blaming one another. Let us try and empower our citizens and let us talk about family planning. This country does not have resources to look after the citizens we have. In the 1960s we talked about family planning. Today we have children because we have Linda Mama . Linda Mama itatoa mtoto hospitali ? If it is a caesarean section, you are detained with your baby. You have to feed and educate the baby. There is a clip by Hon. Kibaki saying: “You are asking serikali for everything. What about you? What are you going to give your serikali ?” So, we need to actually go back to the drawing board as citizens of this country and say if we love this country and we have no other country, how are we going to be honest with each other? Let us put structures in place that stop us from being corrupt. If I am stopped by a policeman and I can pay my fine of Kshs1,000, I would not be forced by the police to bribe. However, because the police want to get into your car, take you to Kibera, waste your time and you are too busy, you would rather part with the Kshs2,000. Let us make it easy for us to pay penalties. Let us make it easy for the DCI. We have an opportunity as a country that invented Mpesa to actually spearhead the fight against corruption. I commend Hon. Uhuru Kenyatta and Hon. Raila Odinga, but there is a lot more that needs to be done beyond the handshake. It is not just tribalism. It is poverty and the poverty that we have is a shame because it is inflicted on us by the people who have been put in leadership positions. It is not these parliamentarians here who are corrupt. We cost only 1.7 per cent of the national Budget. The corruption is with the Executive. Let us name and shame it as it is. When they come for oversight, we oversee accounts that were done for the last Parliament. How are we supposed to fix it? We are definitely a rotten society. It is our country and our solution. So, let us try and talk to ourselves in the right manner and say that we love this country. I want to look in the mirror and love who I see. Ever since I became a politician, sometimes I question who I am, my values and integrity because I am continuously looking for money to save somebody’s life. I am not talking about money for nothing. It is money to save somebody’s life. Yesterday I released a woman from Ongata Rongai Hospital who was detained. We have laws that say we should not detain patients but they are still being detained. We make laws and provide budgets but if you make a law and it is not being followed or if you budget and it is not being delivered or it is being squandered, how are we going to deal with all these problems?"
}