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{
"id": 1065563,
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"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Kiminini, FORD-K",
"speaker_title": "Hon. (Dr.) Chris Wamalwa",
"speaker": {
"id": 1889,
"legal_name": "Chrisantus Wamalwa Wakhungu",
"slug": "chrisantus-wamalwa-wakhungu"
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"content": "the supreme law. We have gone through courts of law. We have suffered so much. Some judges do not know the importance of the NG-CDF. People from poor families, and some who have been orphaned, have gone to school with the support of the NG-CDF. If you go to Kiminini Constituency, you will find that I have put up some storey buildings. I have improved the education infrastructure using the NG-CDF. The NG-CDF has done wonders. Now that it is being anchored in the supreme law, the days of the busy-bodies who have been running all over trying to stop the NG-CDF are numbered. The passage of this Bill will guarantee the existence of the NG-CDF, from which people will continue to get services and assistance without having to seek favours from anybody. Hon. Speaker, this Constitution of Kenya (Amendment) Bill is introducing further devolution with the ward as the smallest unit of devolution. Creation of the Ward Development Fund has been provided in this Bill. The MCAs, wherever they are, should know that once this Bill is approved, there will be the Ward Development Fund that will be managed by the people in each ward. If you want to build a small dispensary or fix some minor issues on a road, the Ward Development Fund will be there to assist. What else do you want, Hon. Members, if these funds are going up to the ward level? There is assurance of development. What else do you expect? Of course, the document cannot be 100 per cent perfect, but it is more than 50 per cent perfect. I urge the Members who are here today to appreciate that if we want to be assured of development, this document has all the solutions. It might not be the best, but it has the solutions. As I move forward, I want to briefly discuss the issue of the Senate. We have had a lot of sibling rivalry with the Senate. The sibling rivalry is no more. This document demonstrates that the National Assembly is going to be the upper House because the Executive is going to sit here. This is my own interpretation. You can choose to interpret it differently. We are going to have cabinet secretaries and the prime minister sitting here, and so, it goes without saying that this will be the upper House. We are, therefore, going to have a high breed system of government. With the Executive sitting here, there is no way we can vet our own. We support that, because cabinet secretaries are going to sit in this House. Anything that needs parliamentary approval will go to the Senate. I know some of you may want to go the Senate. If you go to the Senate, God willing, you will have vetting powers. One of the contentious issues in this Bill is the Ombudsman. The Ombudsman will be vetted by the Senate. Those of you who will go to the Senate, please, be firm, so that the independence of the Judiciary shall not be tempered with. We do not want to go back to the old days. Clause 43 of this Bill is where we have issues. The independence of the judiciary should not be compromised. Clause 43 says that they will receive complaints against the judges, investigate, discipline the judges by warning, reprimanding or suspending a judge. In our current Constitution, there is a right to be heard. A complaint is there, a tribunal will be set, then a respective judge has to appear before the respective tribunal for him to be heard. We strongly feel that it is unfair because we are not seeing an opportunity to be heard. We can have malicious people who will come up with an excuse or complaints which are not justifiable. So, maybe as time goes by, in case we operationalise this, and since I was looking at enabling legislations which will come after one year, we will be amending this, so that we are very clear on how to guard the independence of the Judiciary, so that when the Ombudsman comes in, there should not be conflict of interest or any interference with the independence of the judiciary."
}