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"id": 1063704,
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"speaker_name": "Sen. Kang’ata",
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"content": "be conducted. Once we pass the BBI, the Kenyan taxpayer will incur extra Kshs20 billion annually. Mr. Speaker, Sir, I now go to the issue of one man, one shilling, one vote in the proposed amendment to Article 203 (a). I was a great proponent of that idea. However, when I looked at the proposed Article 203(n), it does not speak to what I was fighting for. I thought this proposal will embed the idea that county money should be shared by factoring the issue of population and giving it the right weight. However, this one is about per capita distribution of county resources which should not be given more than a three factor. For instance, Murang’a, Nyeri, Nyandarua and Meru counties will still have amongst the lowest per capita distribution of county resources. Therefore, let no one say that this Article 203(a) embeds the idea of one man, one shilling. Mr. Speaker, Sir, allow me to go to the proposal of the expanded Parliament. We have 67 hon. Senators while the National Assembly has 290 elected Members plus the women representatives and 12 other nominated Members. Once we expand the Senate, apart from the element of cost, there will be practical problems in this House. One, we will have to build new offices to accommodate the new Members. Two, it will take a long time for each Member to catch the eye of the Speaker. I am not so sure whether we will give adequate representation to the people. That problem will be more acute in the National Assembly because they will have a huge number. Mr. Speaker, Sir, there was a time I went to China when I was in the National Assembly. I was surprised that it has 2000 MPs in a population of 1.4 billion people. When you divide that population vis a vis the representation of the Chinese parliamentarians, you will find that one MP represents about 500,000 persons. However, in Kenya, we are proposing one MP to represent 20,000 persons yet we are a poor country. The United States of America (USA) has 100 Senators in a population of 300 million. We are now proposing to have 94 Senators in a population of about 47 or 48 million. As a country, we need to concentrate on issues that bedevil us, for example, issues of economics. We must ensure not to put all our resources to expand the Legislature. We must remember that we represent people. We should not make this society heavy on the bureaucratic element. That is what this BBI is proposing. Mr. Speaker, Sir, allow me to go to the last issue on the role of this Parliament. Allow me to read Article 3 (1) of the Constitution. It states- “Every person has an obligation to respect, uphold and defend this Constitution” It means that the hon. Senators from Makueni, Kisii and Nandi have an obligation to defend this Constitution. When we are told to manifestly pass unconstitutional amendments, we are breaching Article 3(1) of the Constitution. Mr. Speaker, Sir, I have tasked my mind to read Article 257 of the Constitution on the so-called popular initiative. When I look at it, there is no express positive law that prohibits this House from proposing amendments to this Bill. Therefore, we have a legal duty pursuant to Article 3(1) of the Constitution as read with Article 257, which does not bar this House from doing away with all unconstitutionalities that are contained in this"
}