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{
    "id": 1065232,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1065232/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 193,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Orengo",
    "speaker_title": "The Senate Minority Leader",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 129,
        "legal_name": "Aggrey James Orengo",
        "slug": "james-orengo"
    },
    "content": "I will address you on this issue because I think it is significant to go through it. Why protect the Constitution? When we were in that Committee on the Constitution, we discussed why the Constitution needs protection. Mr. Speaker, Sir, it is important where this document says that Parliament should protect this Constitution. No other organ of Government is given that authority or power to protect the Constitution. I know that the President is supposed to safeguard and comply by the Constitution, generally. However, the role of Parliament is to protect the Constitution. When a constitutional Bill comes to Parliament, it will be considered. This has been debated in South Africa many times. We should consider the foundational values that are contained in the preamble of the Constitution and the construct of the Republic, which is Chapter 1 and 2 as protectors of the Constitution. This Constitution tells us in the preamble that the people of this country made it in the recital to honor those who heroically struggled to bring freedom and justice to our land. There are people who died for this Constitution to be enacted. Therefore, this Constitution reminds us that before we amend it, we should think that there are some people who died for it. We cannot play around with it. There are Members of Parliament (MPs) who died in the protection of this Constitution. We must remember them every time we want to change the law of the land. They struggled for us to have this Constitution. We cannot play around anytime we want to change it. There must be good reasons. They are saying in the foundational values, which are recited in the preamble that we are recognizing the aspirations of all Kenyans for a Government based on the essential values of human rights, equality, freedom, democracy, social justice and the rule of law. The same foundational values are found in Article 10 of the Constitution. Mr. Speaker, Sir, I want to convince Members that their role today, and that of the National Assembly is not ceremonial. We are not here to rubberstamp. We are here to consider just like what Article 94 of the Constitution says. We consider and pass. The Constitution does not say we ‘pass’. It says, ‘we consider and pass’. Therefore, there must be evidence for posterity that we considered. They can read the reasons why we made up our minds to change or amend the Constitution as required by law. Article 94 is critical so are the Articles that I have spelt out to hon. Members in the procedure for amending the Constitution through a popular initiative. Having said that, the Committee went through a lot of discussion. In this Report, where certain observations were made, this Committee gave solutions. It was not just a Report that hang without giving solutions. They told us to pass the Bill and where they found challenges, they told us how to address them. They dealt with issues of public participation in the Schedule that created the special category of constituencies and also considered the question of revenue as provided in Article 203. In all their observations and recommendations, they are gave us an answer and solution. That is why I am seconding this Bill because the Report gives us a way forward. The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor, Senate."
}