Entry Instance

HTTP 200 OK
Allow: GET, PUT, PATCH, DELETE, HEAD, OPTIONS
Content-Type: application/json
Vary: Accept

{
    "id": 1014124,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1014124/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 15,
    "type": "other",
    "speaker_name": "",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "Hon. Members, I wish to make this Communication relating to consideration of individual Members’ Bills by Committees of the House. Legislation forms one of the principal mandates of any parliamentary body world over. Indeed, Articles 94(1) and 95(3) of the Constitution vests legislative responsibility on Parliament in general and the National Assembly in particular. It is a cardinal responsibility that the House should at all times discharge and prioritise. Since the commencement of the 12th Parliament, many individual Members have sponsored legislative proposals on various subject matters. Many of these proposals have since been drafted into Bills, having undergone the due legislative processes and are at different stages of consideration by the House. Indeed, the House Business Committee (HBC) continues to prioritise individual Members’ legislative business to ensure consideration and conclusion. As a matter of fact, Standing Orders have allotted Wednesday mornings as a day for consideration of individual Members’ businesses to ensure unimpeded consideration of such business from the busy schedule of the House. During this part of the Session, as you will recall, priority is accorded to individual Members’ business during the morning sittings of Thursdays. The attention of the HBC has, however, been drawn to an apparent lackluster prioritisation and processing of individual Members’ Bills by some Committees of the House. As a matter of fact, the HBC has been blamed by a section of the House for giving priority to individual Members’ Bills originating in the Senate at the expense of a similar category of Bills sponsored by individual Members of the National Assembly. As you are aware, consideration and reporting by Committees is an integral part of the legislative process and forms the main avenue through which the House undertakes public participation on Bills as required under Article 118 of the Constitution. It is for this reason that the House Business Committee has been constrained to schedule the Bills for Second Reading in the absence of the respective reports from the committees. It has therefore, become necessary, that I guide the House on this matter. Hon. Members, out of the 45 individual Members’ Bills that are currently being processed by the House, 24 have been considered by the respective committees and the reports tabled before the House. The Bills are either undergoing Second Reading or awaiting Committee Stage. I take this early opportunity to laud the committees that have concluded the consideration of Members Bills committed to them and tabled their respective reports. However, 21 individual Members’ Bills are still pending before several departmental committees. You will agree with me that this is by no means a small number given the arduous effort put in by the respective Members in conceptualising the Bills in an efforts to resolve issues of concern to the people by way of legislation. Hon. Members, from the foregoing, I wish to inform the House that Reports on the following 21 Bills are yet to be tabled by respective committees hereunder: 1. The Departmental Committee on Agriculture and Livestock is yet to Table Reports on the following three Bills: a) The Kenya Food and Drugs Authority Bill, 2019, Sponsored by the Member for Endebess, Hon. (Dr.) Robert Pukose, MP, having been read a First Time on 2nd May 2019; b) The Crops (Amendment) (No.2) Bill, 2019, Sponsored by the Member for Gatundu South, Hon. Moses Kuria, MP, having been read a First Time on 26th June 2019, and; 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."
}