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{
    "id": 950379,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/950379/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 270,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Bomet Central, JP",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Ronald Tonui",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 1242,
        "legal_name": "Ronald Kiprotich Tonui",
        "slug": "ronald-kiprotich-tonui"
    },
    "content": " Thank you, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker for giving me this opportunity to make my contribution to this Bill. I support the fight against corruption, but I do not support this Bill. I do not believe we have shortage of pieces of legislation in fighting corruption. I believe we have adequate legislation and so, this one may not add anything much. This is especially when it is addressing the jail term that we need to increase to go beyond 10 years. Why do we not even jail people for that maximum of 10 years first before we adjust it? The issue is simply at the implementation and processing stage in the courts. Otherwise, the legislation which we have certainly addresses most of those issues. I know when Hon. Sankok seconded, he mentioned the issue of the Mau Trust Land which he called Mau Forest as a form of corruption; that connecting power to the people living there and building roads and schools there is a form of corruption. However, he did not address the issue that those people have title deeds from the same Government and the same title deeds are also possessed by those others who have tea plantations in forests. In Mau Forest, there are several tea plantations. They are owned by Finlays and Unilever, which are part of that Mau Forest. Kiptagich Tea Estate is part of that forest. If you go through Aberdare Forest, you will find that there is a big tea estate inside the forest. Who are its owners? We normally discuss quietly when we are taking tea and we say the mighty in this country cannot be tried. They can grab land anywhere, but we will always concentrate on the small people in the Mau and such. But those ones will never be touched because they are the mighty. They are the people who had the power to allocate land and they allocated it to themselves. That is why they allocated themselves land even in places which look very awkward. When you curve a tea plantation in the middle of a forest and when we google and see it, we normally laugh as we enjoy tea; that those people are too brave to do such a thing. I believe if we are to fight corruption, there should be no discrimination. Those sacred cows should not be there. We should be able to fight it conclusively by dealing with them. The tendering process is a major activity which contributes to corruption. As long as we do not standardise the works which we do, then there will always be corruption. For example, 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."
}