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{
    "id": 1017131,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1017131/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 244,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Suba South, ODM",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. John Mbadi",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 110,
        "legal_name": "John Mbadi Ng'ong'o",
        "slug": "john-mbadi"
    },
    "content": "I have never failed to be here to vote for this amendment. Most of them have not been here, many of them. They get agitated when you say that. You should not be agitated. If you were elected to come here and represent women issues, please, do it and do it properly. Do not do it out there. It does not help. You talking and supporting Maraga will not help. This House is not going anywhere. Who is this mad man person who is going to dissolve Parliament at this point in time? It is not going to be dissolved. By the way, the only route to solving this issue is the Building Bridges Initiative. That is the only route. We will talk all the language we want to say, but the only route is again to go back to the people of Kenya. In fact, I am looking at this Constitution and I am seeing the mischief. The drafters, Hon. Otiende Amollo, with all due respect, became mischievous. They did not want to touch it because this was a hot potato. They left it. Why did they touch the county assemblies? It is very clear. It is explicit. But what did they do for this one? It is ambiguous. In fact, Hon. Speaker, if you strictly read this Constitution, even that Article 261 we are talking about, it is addressing itself to those provisions under the Fifth Schedule to the Constitution. By the way, we were burning midnight oil here. There are only six MPs who have served this Parliament, in this Parliament, longer than I have. I remember very clearly that we could legislate up to midnight. The Leader of the Majority Party can bear me witness. We passed almost everything that was in the Fifth Schedule. These provisions of Article 100 are not even clear that it is the two-thirds. It just talks about promoting women representation; promoting youth, representation; promoting the marginalised representation; and those living with disabilities. The only Article that talks to the two-thirds gender rule is Article 27. There is no provision in this Constitution that gave timelines. It is just the same way this same Constitution, under Article 261, has left it without setting timelines to the President. The people of Kenya wanted to take away the power to dissolve Parliament from the President. Then, we again create, in the same Constitution, power to dissolve Parliament. These are contradictions that must be addressed. I wanted to just speak to the fact that, as MPs, we do not dwell so much on whether this House is going to be dissolved. It is because I know it is not going to be dissolved. What we need to talk to now is the inconsistencies in this Constitution. Are there issues that can be addressed before the BBI Report is out? I think something can still be changed at this time. We should change them. I am not saying that we remove the two-thirds gender rule. The two-thirds gender rule is important. We need to realise it. But the method is not provided here. Now, the solution to it is the BBI. How do you give the Chief Justice that power? If you look at the debate in America currently, it is whether the President should appoint a justice in his final year. Why are we allowing the Chief Justice to make a major decision like this in his final months? Those are questions that we need to ask."
}