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{
    "id": 1021572,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1021572/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 148,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Endebess, JP",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. (Dr.) Robert Pukose",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 1458,
        "legal_name": "Robert Pukose",
        "slug": "robert-pukose"
    },
    "content": "When it comes to the length of debate, we are looking at reducing the amount of time Members take to speak. Each Member has five minutes while the Leader of the Majority Party and the Leader of the Minority Party have 10 minutes. We have not actually rethought about the time span of two-and-a-half hours, so that we can be able to accommodate Bills. That is something the House Business Committee should also look at. Hon. Speaker, there is a committee to which you and I belong - the Procedure and House Rules Committee - which has not even sat since we were put into that Committee in the last Session. I think that is also something that needs to be looked at. There is also the issue that Hon. Millie and Hon. Ichung’wah have raised about Private Members’ Bills. I have a Bill which has been with the Departmental Committee on Health for close to two years on the Kenya Food and Drugs Authority, which looks at how drugs in the market are regulated in terms of pharmaco-vigilance and many other things. It also looks at how we have fake drugs in the market. Nobody seems to be prioritising the Bill. Considering that health is a very critical issue, the Committee should have looked at that Bill as a matter of priority. So, the House Business Committee should look at some of those Bills. It is high time the Procedure and House Rules Committee set a timeline within which committees should process Private Members’ Bills and other Bills, just like the way we process petitions from the public or Members. We give them 75 days. We should have a time limit within which committees should deal with Private Members’ Bills and other matters that this House is required to consider. Thank you, Hon. Speaker."
}