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{
    "id": 1059455,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1059455/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 289,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Orengo",
    "speaker_title": "The Senate Minority Leader",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 129,
        "legal_name": "Aggrey James Orengo",
        "slug": "james-orengo"
    },
    "content": " Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker. I join the Co-Chair of the joint committee in the request that we be given more time to come up with a report. Allow me to state that nobody in this country should say that the role of Parliament is ceremonial. You cannot have a provision in the Constitution where Parliament is required to conduct business or a transaction for ceremonial purposes. The fact that Parliament is involved in this process is proof enough that the two Houses are not ceremonial. In fact, Parliament is one of the few institutions which is involved in the parliamentary process and in the popular initiative. It is not for nothing. Madam Deputy Speaker, I urge those people who want to imagine that there is a crisis in the Committee that there is nothing like that. If the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) can take a position on some matters, Parliament requires an answer to be given to that representation made by the IEBC. The Kenya National Bureau of Standards (KNBS) took certain positions which they made out to Parliament and we must answer their questions. I want the Co-Chair to listen to me as I say this because he is the one who brought up this issue. If you look at how the Committee of Experts conducted their business, there is literature backing almost on every issue on every Article in the Constitution, on the positions that they took. Madam Deputy Speaker, if you go to the HANSARD and the records of the parliamentary process during the Constitution making process which came to this Parliament, you will only find our debates. It is a shame that the public will not be able to understand the position taken by Parliament in 2010. Therefore, this time around we should not allow a position where Parliament is going to give a report to this House which treated our role as purely ceremonial. I want to assure you that in the deliberations of the joint committee, there was no single issue on which Members of the Committee differed. I can assure you of that because I was there. We agreed on what to do. Madam Deputy Speaker, generally, we said there are two components of the report that we are required to bring before Parliament. One, is on the process. We must answer that question. Are we on the right track? It is a question that has arisen out there in the public and courts so Parliament must speak to it. Secondly, is on the issue of content to which Parliament must give an answer. I always regret the fact that when we were turning this great nation to a one party system, The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposes only. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor, Senate."
}