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{
    "id": 1065651,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1065651/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 118,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Seme, ODM",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. (Dr.) James Nyikal",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 434,
        "legal_name": "James Nyikal",
        "slug": "james-nyikal"
    },
    "content": "are a state by law, but are we a nation at heart? The other issue is exclusivity. Why do some people believe that they are not part of the system? That if your man is not at the top then you are not part of the country, you will not get services, and you will not get appointments. Hon. Speaker, those are the problems. Why is it that people who are corrupt- obviously and sometimes openly corrupt- are actually the ones who claim to run the system? Hon. Speaker, they also noticed the 9 agenda which includes the issue of devolution. Therefore, to me the BBI initiative was trying to seek how we can go back on the path that we lost from 1963 and take this country back to where we wanted it. There are some of us here who may not believe that in the 1970s public hospitals were better than private hospitals. I can tell you Hon. Speaker, in 1976/1977, when I was a medical student, we were transferring from Agha Khan to Kenyatta Hospital because it was a better hospital. As an intern, I was transferring children from Agha Khan Hospital in Kisumu to the provincial hospital, which is now Jaramogi Hospital because there were better services there. The public schools were better than the private schools. Many of us here of my age went to public schools. They were the standard. How has it come that now it is public things that actually serve the majority of Kenyans that are actually second grade? Now that public schools do better people are wondering whether that is real. However, in reality that is how it should be. That is where the majority of our people are served. That is what led to the solutions that we are seeking through this amendment. We are seeking to see if this amendment can take us back to where we wanted to be. Hon. Speaker, I accept that some of the amendments will actually take us there. I therefore support this Bill. For example we are going to have the Leader of Official Opposition in Parliament. Obviously, if you have an election and the Leader of Opposition fits comfortably in Parliament, we shall not run in the streets. Therefore, that will definitely solve the problem. Look at the proposed structure of the Executive. Under Clause 28, which is amending Article 151, there is establishment of the office of the Prime Minister and the office of the Deputy Prime Minister. These will go a long way in stabilising the system. Some people have argued that this will be expensive. Is the establishment of those offices more expensive than the losses we incur every time after elections? It cannot be. Therefore, when we establish those offices and there is stability that is okay. Moreover, when the office of the Prime Minister is established we will actually appoint the Prime Minister from this House. In fact, it is giving the House more power in the Executive than we probably have now. We shall have Ministers in the House. We have been trying to get Ministers here! The only thing I may comment about is that removal of the mandate of this House to vet the Ministers. That is something we may look at. The amendments you can actually see in this are about what the responsibilities of a citizen are. That is extremely important. People can say that these are our rights. However, people must know that these are the responsibilities that we have."
}