21 Apr 2016 in National Assembly:
Clause 7 is very important in the Bill. It says that all the funds which will be appropriated for the Judiciary in each financial year shall be retained at the end of the year. So, this becomes more like another National Government Constituencies Development Fund (CDF) where once the year comes to an end instead of people saying that money is going back to the National Treasury, the Judiciary will roll over these resources to use in the subsequent year. This is very important because you realise that where they have challenges in the implementation, they will have no need ...
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21 Apr 2016 in National Assembly:
This will be very important to this country, because looking at this country in terms of access to justice; Kenyans have a lot of challenges. There are Kenyans who travel over 100 kilometres to access justice; going to courts. If the Judiciary has these resources, they will be able to have more courts near people and they will improve the mobile courts so that they can have many of this to make sure that those Kenyans who are in the interior parts of Kenya can access justice.
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21 Apr 2016 in National Assembly:
The other important part of this Bill is the whole issue of auditing. The Bill confirms that at the end of every financial year, the Auditor-General will audit the books of the Judiciary. This will ensure that there is accountability to Kenyans. We will account for the money we give them.
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21 Apr 2016 in National Assembly:
But even as we put this law in place, we need to bear in mind that there are things which do not need to be legislated for them to take place. I have given the example of low absorption of the Judiciary’s budget. Every year, this House goes that extra mile to ensure that the Judiciary has money. If you look at the Budget Policy Statement we passed, we have proposed again about Kshs17 billion yet last year they spent about Kshs8 billion. So, the question I am asking myself and the challenge we want to throw to the Judiciary ...
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21 Apr 2016 in National Assembly:
The other important matter is the issue of corruption. This House discussed the Special Report on the Judiciary the other day. In that report, Kenyans were able to see the kind of misapplication of resources. I plead with the Judiciary that this Fund is going to enable them to The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor.
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21 Apr 2016 in National Assembly:
access more resources and have control over them. But even as we say that, the Judiciary must also take the challenge to make sure that resources are applied for the intended purpose. That will help this country in terms of accessibility to justice.
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21 Apr 2016 in National Assembly:
I look at this Bill as very important. Over time we have been saying that Judiciary, the Legislature and the national Government want independence. Providing financial autonomy to any institution is the best thing to do to ensure that that independence is achieved.
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21 Apr 2016 in National Assembly:
This law is important. It is unfortunate, as my colleagues have said, that we did not have it in place earlier than today but, we are not late. There is still time. As we move forward, it is going to help the Judiciary.
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21 Apr 2016 in National Assembly:
The last point and this is now generally a matter we need to think of as Kenyans, is in terms of management of our resources. When you look at financial management in this country so many institutions have different accounts in different financial institutions. For example, those of us who read the Chase Bank Report, you realise the Public Accounts Committee had already identified that Kshs180 million for the Youth Fund had been deposited in this Bank. I do not know whether this is good or bad but before the Bank collapsed, the people who claimed corruption had withdrawn the ...
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21 Apr 2016 in National Assembly:
This law is very important, but as we move forward, let us also think about that one central account. For example, if you go to the Central Bank, there is a lot of money being retained for Kitui and Turkana counties. Then Rotich and his team go borrowing money to fund a Government project because they cannot access that money. These are the simple things we need to do as Kenyans and take advantage of the limited resources we have. Kenyans are educated. We need to play around with the law and improve it so as to benefit this country. ...
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