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{
    "id": 971078,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/971078/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 168,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Molo, JP",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Kuria Kimani",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13435,
        "legal_name": "Francis Kuria Kimani",
        "slug": "francis-kuria-kimani"
    },
    "content": "resource in terms of the number of magistrates that are serving Kenyans is the lowest in Africa and the world. The 2010 Constitution created the three arms of Government. In their wisdom, the drafters of the Constitution placed tribunals under ministries. However, it is regrettable to note that out of 60 tribunals, only 20 have been properly put where they are supposed to be and that is under the Judiciary. Cabinet Secretaries have failed to appoint their persons and transfer those functions to the Judiciary. This is against the spirit of ensuring that our Constitution is followed and adhered to. I, therefore, expect that part of the recommendations of this Report should be that forthwith and immediately, the 40 tribunals that are under the ministries should go to the Judiciary so that the spirit of the separation of powers between the Executive, Parliament and the Judiciary is adhered to. One of the observations of the Report was the jurisprudence that has been done by the courts mainly through several rulings. One that I would like to quote is a public participation ruling that said when you are doing direct procurement, public participation is a must for all parties of interest. A lot of money is lost in this country through direct procurement because some officers just sit down and decide who they will award a particular tender. Provisions in our Constitution do not allow that to happen. As a result, the actual cost of such projects is usually exaggerated and value for money is not achieved. Therefore, this decision by the courts that for direct procurement there must be public participation by all the relevant people and bodies is very welcome. We are hoping that this will not just remain a decision on paper but our officers, especially the ones in the Judiciary, will adhere to it. There is a decision that we need to make as a country. Every year we spend Kshs1 billion feeding convicts that are on death row. Therefore, a decision needs to be made. Do we need to spend Kshs1 billion feeding those people? We call prisons correction services. Could we decide that these people have corrected their ways and can come back to the society and make a meaningful contribution to our economy? Spending taxpayers’ money - a whole billion shillings every year - to feed convicts that are on death row and we call our prisons correctional services is not good for the economy. It cannot even be said to be good for those convicts, the country or taxpayers who sacrifice their taxes to fund the Government. The Judiciary has complained many times of lack of budgetary allocation. Just like other institutions, the amount of money that is asked for has always been more compared to how much is allocated. The Judiciary has said that the reason they are not able to work is because they are underfunded. This Report notes that the absorption rate by the Judiciary is 67 per cent. That means that they are not able to absorb the amount of money that is allocated to them. They are able to absorb slightly more than half of what they are allocated. Therefore, in as much as we sympathise with the Judiciary with the under-allocation just like all the other institutions, they need to wake up, prioritise their projects, have good systems that ensure money that is allocated to them is absorbed and that services to wananchi are not rendered because they are underfunded. As we will come to see, if they are not able to absorb even what they are given, that means that even if they were given much more, they will not be able to work as they should. I want to end by saying that we need to make a decision. We cannot spend Kshs1 billion feeding people who are doing nothing. Kenyans are working hard to put food on the table, educate our children, pay our medical bills and you are spending Kshs1 billion to feed people on death row. We should decide to, either kill them, send them back to the society, or make sure that the correction services of our prisons actually correct those people so that they can come back to our economy and make meaningful contributions. 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."
}