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{
    "id": 1065753,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1065753/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 220,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Tharaka, DP",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. George Gitonga",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13491,
        "legal_name": "George Gitonga Murugara",
        "slug": "george-gitonga-murugara"
    },
    "content": " Thank you, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker. As you have observed, we have been here since 9.30 a.m. I have been patiently sitting and I am happy that I have been reached to weigh in on this debate. This is momentous on a historical occasion of constitution-making. I want to request you to allow me to speak as a Member of the Departmental Committee on Justice and Legal Affairs. We sat and came up with a Report that is supposed to guide Members in discussing this Bill. I wish to set the record straight that as a Member of that Committee, I am conversant with the Report to the letter. As an advocate and a lawyer, allow me to point out salient issues that touch on the legality of the Bill that has been brought to us for processing for onward transmission to the public through a referendum. Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, as the Joint Committee of the National Assembly Departmental Committee on Justice and Legal Affairs and the Senate Standing Committee on Justice, Legal Affairs and Human Rights, we pondered over the nature of this Bill when it came to the question of the promoters. This Bill is by an entity called BBI and we were not able to establish its legal status, whether it is sui juris or an entity that can bring such a Bill. We eventually established that the two gazetted entities were the taskforce and the Implementation Committee. The names, including that of Hon. Junet Mohamed, do not feature anywhere in as far as this Bill is concerned. Therefore, he should not be telling us about collecting 4 million signatures because he is not the one who did that. We also pondered over the popular initiative with the question of the role of Parliament and in as much as we resolved that the role of Parliament is not ceremonial, in my view, the role of Parliament in this is just ceremonial. There is very little that Parliament can do in view of the provisions of Article 257 of the Constitution. The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor."
}