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{
    "id": 1047305,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1047305/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 288,
    "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": " Thank you, Hon. Speaker. I want to second this Motion. Basically, we are retaining the membership apart from a few changes. There are some Members who have been specified in our Standing Orders. This is an addition to those Members. The Leader of the Majority Party has mentioned something that is worth talking about, on the image that the media tries to portray about Parliament. I know it is hard to change the media’s perception of Parliament. Hon. Speaker, if you can remember, when we were in the HBC, for us to agree to add the two sittings on Tuesday and Thursday evening, we laboured on it. It was not easy for us to agree. We felt that 7.00 p.m. to 9.00 p.m. will be too late for Members. We looked at the workload and the fact that this could be the last critical session of the 12th parliament. Also, we looked at what happens elsewhere, for example, in the House of Congress and the House of Commons in the United Kingdom and how they sacrifice to spend more time legislating. For the media to turn this round and make it appear like we have created two more sittings to get more money… I do not think the sitting allowance of this Parliament is motivating, so to speak. If you ask me to choose between the Kshs5,000 sitting allowance that I get and something else that I could do in the evening, I would probably opt for something else. That is why many Members will not appear in the House in the Evening Sitting. However, there will be enough Members out of the 349 Members to transact business. In this Evening Sitting, we are likely to debate the Referendum Bill, which is critical if we are to have a referendum. I want to plead with Members. The Minority Whip sent out a message to the Members to be here at 7.00 p.m. to discuss the Referendum Bill. I do not want to call this a sacrifice. However, we are taking responsibility as Members of Parliament who have been elected by our people to legislate and deliberate on issues that affect this country. I want to urge the media to sometimes be kind to MPs. Many of us sacrifice a lot to sit and legislate for this country. Although that is our work, we are not motivated by financial gains. If that were the case, many of us would not be here or we would be making technical appearances. Many of us have been here since 2.30 p.m. No one has glued us on these seats. We are here to do business. That is what I wanted to say. The discussion we had on the Budget and Appropriations 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."
}