14 Oct 2021 in Senate:
The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor, Senate.
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14 Oct 2021 in Senate:
to pay pending bills. There was already a Bill by Sen. Farhiya and Sen. Sakaja as well as another one in the National Assembly on the same subject matter. We need to deal with the issue of doing investigations. Let us have timelines within which pending payments should be paid if the DCI or the EACC does not conclude the investigation and does not lead to being charged. The issue of pending bills is even worse in the national Government. If the national Government wants to evade payments for contracts that they have committed or they want to kill a ...
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14 Oct 2021 in Senate:
I do not know what Sen. Farhiya would like to inform me.
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14 Oct 2021 in Senate:
Madam Temporary Speaker, you cannot anticipate debate at the Committee of the Whole. My suggestions are that during the Committee of the Whole, we must make sure that those amendments are captured. I thank Sen. Farhiya for capturing the issue on the Prompt Payment Bill and we need to do it expeditiously so that we can sort this issue. In the meantime, I hope the Cabinet Secretary National Treasury and Planning, the Controller of Budget because they have responsibility of county finances that these pending bills are paid. Lives are being lost every other day when these payments are not ...
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14 Oct 2021 in Senate:
Madam Temporary Speaker, I thank you for the opportunity to contribute to the Lifestyle Audit Bill. From the onset, I want to congratulate Sen. Farhiya for attempting to provide a solution to a subject that has been extremely important in the recent past. The discussion around who to fight corruption, particularly using lifestyle audit as a tool. I want to tell Sen. Farhiya that I have a lot of problems with this Bill and I would like to provide the context within which I raise concerns in so far as this Bill is concerned.
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14 Oct 2021 in Senate:
First, I agree with Sen. Orengo when he speaks about a nation that we should have, founded on values and principles of integrity, good governance and accountability and we should be a nation that applies the rule of law. Among other provisions, in protecting the rule of law, is the presumption of innocence, that every citizen is innocent until proven guilty. There has been an attempt to have an exception to this principle. The Constitution itself provides grounds within which one can be held before being charged when investigations are going on.
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14 Oct 2021 in Senate:
The reason why I have a problem to start with, before I look at the specific provisions is the context within which this Bill is being brought to this House. We are living in a generation and a country where the fight against corruption has been weaponised as a mechanism for political mobilisation and for witch-hunting for specific people you do not like. Today, it is not secret in the country that the fight against corruption for the last three years has been wedged against individuals that are considered to be of different political persuasion from the Government of the ...
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14 Oct 2021 in Senate:
I say so because it is extremely important because this Constitution that we have today intended to reduce the powers of the Presidency and create independent institutions. As we speak, unless you are a visitor in Jerusalem, there is absolutely no independent institution in the country. What we used to call the fifth arm of Government, there is not a single independent commission. How did that happen? The Executive found a window on how to deal with independent institutions. They also found for this House and the Lower House. They found it in so far as the independent commissions are ...
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14 Oct 2021 in Senate:
The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor, Senate.
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14 Oct 2021 in Senate:
Commission and go to the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission, even the appointees had challenges and we saw what happened within Parliament, the checks and balances were there. If you look at the appointees to the first Judicial Service Commission under the new Constitution, the appointments were balanced, robust and exercised independence. What happened when we came to office in 2013? We now had a situation where you have an executive that is homogenous in nature and desirous to control power in every arm of Government. Between 2013 and 2017 and this is a fact, we fought on the Floor of ...
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