{"count":1608389,"next":"http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/?format=json&page=157251","previous":"http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/?format=json&page=157249","results":[{"id":1590692,"url":"http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1590692/?format=json","text_counter":181,"type":"speech","speaker_name":"Sen. Cherarkey","speaker_title":"","speaker":null,"content":"Mr. Temporary Chairman, Sir, mine is a comment on the word “affinity”. They are saying that “relative” means a person who is related to a public officer by birth, marriage, adoption or affinity. I think we should drop the word “affinity” because its definition, according to the Oxford Dictionary, means the liking of a person. Does it mean that if I have been your friend for some time and I have a close affinity, then we are related? It should have been consanguinity affinity. That means being related by blood as my learned colleagues would define."},{"id":1590693,"url":"http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1590693/?format=json","text_counter":182,"type":"speech","speaker_name":"Sen. Cherarkey","speaker_title":"","speaker":null,"content":"Based on this Memorandum, it should stop at “adoption” because the moment you add the word “affinity”, it changes the meaning. It means somebody you have affinity to as a friend, be it male or female or somebody you banter or work with. So, on the issue of ethics report, that definition should be ethics and anti-corruption. If the definition only comes out as ethics, then we can equate it to the Ethics Commission, but it should be Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission. I wanted to say something on the manner in which undeclared assets has been proposed, but I will reserve those to Clause 6. I will make that comment at that point. We must drop the issue of affinity because it is unfair. It will undermine freedom of association as provided by the Constitution. Affinity allows friendships and acquaintances. What this means is that if a public officer is found to have committed an economic crime, people close to him or his associates, which is not properly defined by law, can run into problems. This is, therefore, undermining the principle and the freedom of association as enshrined by the Constitution. So, it is a nullity. I hope the Chairperson of the Committee on Justice, Legal Affairs and Human Rights is listening keenly. It is dangerous to have this clause in the Bill because if one is to go for Sen. Abdul Haji over an economic crime, then his friends like Sen. Cherarkey will be in trouble. We must drop it in order for us not to undermine freedom of association within the setup. We all know that in an African setup, families are huge. In fact, I have cousins that I have not seen in the last many years. That is my worry on this. On the issue of undeclared assets, I will come back to it when we will be looking at Clause 6. Thank you, Mr. Temporary Chairman, for the indulgence."},{"id":1590694,"url":"http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1590694/?format=json","text_counter":183,"type":"speech","speaker_name":"Sen. Mungatana, MGH","speaker_title":"","speaker":null,"content":"Thank you, Mr. Temporary Chairman. I am alive to the fact that overriding our presidential memorandum is an uphill task as per the Constitution. However, we must go on record, so that if matters go to court, the intention of the legislature can be interpreted from the record by the lawyers who will be there. The worry here about the affinity definition is because it is so wide, so that a person who wants to enforce will have a challenge. In this case, I am looking at the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) that is the enforcing authority. Will they define relative to mean a person who is related to the public officer by birth, marriage, adoption, or affinity? When you look at the first three, there is no discussion about it. However, when you come to the fourth one, “affinity”, it is so loose that somebody can actually use that to harm people or to destroy somebody. This means that when they are enforcing anything against a public officer, they can go for any person whom they think has some form of affinity or association with the person of interest."},{"id":1590695,"url":"http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1590695/?format=json","text_counter":184,"type":"speech","speaker_name":"Sen. Mungatana, MGH","speaker_title":"","speaker":null,"content":"The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposes only.A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Director, Hansard and Audio Services,Senate."},{"id":1590696,"url":"http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1590696/?format=json","text_counter":185,"type":"speech","speaker_name":"Sen. Mungatana, MGH","speaker_title":"","speaker":null,"content":"This means every friend that you stay with, every person you play basketball with, go to church with or even members of your social welfare group. There is a problem here with this word and the intention cannot be to expose people to this extent. It is obviously in conflict with the freedom of association Article in the Constitution. This means that even if it passes here, somebody can pick it and remove this word through the courts because this is wrong. I do not know what the thinking was here. I submit."},{"id":1590697,"url":"http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1590697/?format=json","text_counter":186,"type":"speech","speaker_name":"Sen. Osotsi","speaker_title":"","speaker":null,"content":"Mr. Temporary Chairman, just like Sen. Mungatana has said, overriding a presidential referral is an uphill task because it requires two-thirds Members of this House to change that. However, it should go on record that there is an ambiguity in the definition of a relative, particularly the word affinity. What is affinity? It is ambiguous."},{"id":1590698,"url":"http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1590698/?format=json","text_counter":187,"type":"speech","speaker_name":"Sen. Osotsi","speaker_title":"","speaker":null,"content":"One can have an affinity to many people, including people in this House. You and I have some affinity because we are Senators. So, if I commit a crime, you will be arrested because of me. This word will be used for political persecution. We are in political parties and we get ourselves in those political parties because of some affinity. So, if my party leader, deputy party leader or my secretary general commits a crime, then they will come for me. So, we must clearly indicate that as legislators, we have a problem with this word “affinity”. I know we cannot do much about it at this point because we need two-thirds of Members of this House to override that. However, it must go on record that this House was uncomfortable with the definition of the word “relative”. Foreign legislations, which are forced on us are the ones creating problems in this country. We are now talking about Gen Zs and too much freedom. It is because we adopted a Constitution that this country was not ready for. That is why we have problems. This piece of legislation is going to cause problems in this country. It will be used for political persecution and intimidation of people. I will be in Government today, and I will not be there tomorrow. What will happen is that they will come for me."},{"id":1590699,"url":"http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1590699/?format=json","text_counter":188,"type":"speech","speaker_name":"Sen. Osotsi","speaker_title":"","speaker":null,"content":"So, I register my disapproval of the definition of the word “relative”. It should go on record that on this particular day that the Members of this House were in agreement that this definition is vague and something has to be done. If the Bill is passed, we must amend it to remove that ambiguity."},{"id":1590700,"url":"http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1590700/?format=json","text_counter":189,"type":"speech","speaker_name":"Sen. Osotsi","speaker_title":"","speaker":null,"content":"I do not support that definition."},{"id":1590701,"url":"http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1590701/?format=json","text_counter":190,"type":"speech","speaker_name":"Sen. Okenyuri","speaker_title":"","speaker":null,"content":"Thank you, Mr. Temporary Chairman, Sir. I also wish to join my colleagues to express displeasure in the lack of clear definitions for the words “family”, “relative” and “affinity”. In as much as we want to curb loopholes in the public sector, if we do not clearly state whom we are targeting, then we might end up exposing people who are very innocent, just because they associate with certain individuals. As a Senate, we need to keenly look at this. We should provide an alternative way of defining who is family, relative and affinity, who are the people close to an individual that we want to target. If we do not define those three clearly, then we might expose innocent people to issues that we are trying to curb."}]}