Entry Instance

HTTP 200 OK
Allow: GET, PUT, PATCH, DELETE, HEAD, OPTIONS
Content-Type: application/json
Vary: Accept

{
    "id": 1064887,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1064887/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 247,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Kipipiri, JP",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Amos Kimunya",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 174,
        "legal_name": "Amos Muhinga Kimunya",
        "slug": "amos-kimunya"
    },
    "content": "by one Member. However, that Question might be of interest to the entire House. When Questions are answered on the Floor of this House the accountability is to the entire House and people can then follow up rather than having responses in small bits and pieces. So the Members then said, 'Let us have the Executive back in the House.' When you have that kind of situation where Ministers are in the House then, obviously, you need somebody to coordinate them. It cannot be the Leader of Majority Party. What we used to have in the old days, that is, the Leader of Government Business, is what is now being brought in as the Prime Minister. He or she will be the coordinator of the Cabinet Secretaries in the House assisted by two deputies. I have heard people saying that there is creation of vacancies or many positions for political reasons. Immediately you introduce Cabinet Secretaries in the House, of necessity, you will need somebody to coordinate them. That person can be the first among them who is the Prime Minister or the Premier Minister, that is, the First Minister, if you like, assisted by two deputies. In addition, the current situation where you have Chief Administrative Secretaries (CASs) who are supposed to be the interlink between Parliament and the Executive, will now be taken over by Assistant Ministers or Deputy Ministers appointed from amongst the Members of Parliament. This is so that business can be conducted here. We can have Members sitting to the right of the Speaker representing the government side and Members to the left representing the Opposition led by the Leader of Official Opposition and the Shadow Cabinet. That system has worked before. We know it can work and it will continue working. Hon. Speaker, as regards to the second issue on the two-thirds gender rule, we know in 2010 we agreed that Kenyans said that we should have a system of governance that ensures that no more than two-thirds of one gender must represent the elective or even appointive positions. That was contained within Article 27(8) which states that the State shall take legislative measures to implement this principle to ensure that no more than two-thirds of the members of the elective bodies shall be of the same gender. It has been tried, say, six times in this House and every attempt has flopped, including us being threatened with a dissolution of the House. People went to the Chief Justice to say we have failed hence we should be dissolved. The President in his wisdom knew that there was an initiative that would come in and hence could be used to solve this problem. So, he does not have to dissolve Parliament but let the people of Kenya decide on how they want to handle this issue. This is because it is the people of Kenya through a referendum in 2010 who put this challenge to Parliament. We are fortunate as Parliament that the promoters of the BBI have taken this challenge from us. We will be taking it to the people to say, “In 2010 you brought in the two-thirds gender rule, can you now make a decision as to how we constitute Parliament without forcing you to nominate or elect so and so? Article 38 is very clear that people have a choice of who to vote for or where to vie. Due to those issues, the BBI is solving our problem. We are happy and hope that the people of Kenya will make a decision as they did in 2010."
}