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{
    "id": 1065906,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1065906/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 126,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Cherargei",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13217,
        "legal_name": "Cherarkey K Samson",
        "slug": "cherarkey-k-samson"
    },
    "content": "Mr. Speaker, Sir, I think women play a critical role. This is coming at a time when President Samia Suluhu, the first female president of the United Republic of Tanzania, is in the country. I just want to challenge women that they should fight for these positions. They should work hard so that they become who they want to be. We have Funds such as the Ward Development Fund, the Constituencies Development Fund (CDF) and other funds, but there will be no Affirmative Action Fund that was under the Women Representatives in the National Assembly following the proposed constitutional amendment. Finally, I would like to talk about the issue of representation in the amendments. I heard the Secretary-General of the Central Organization of Trade Union (COTU) supporting the BBI, but I think he had not read Article 97 where there is a proposed amendment. I would like to tell the trade unionists lawyers, including my seniors here, that the special seat for workers has been removed. In Article 97, the workers used to have one representative, but that has been removed. How will the trade union and labour issues be legislated? I hope officials of the labour unions and movements are listening. We have the Kenya National Union of Nurses (KNUN) and COTU among other organisations. Let them know that the role of workers has been removed in this document. Having said that, I would like to say something about the amendment on the issue of the Ombudsman. I thought that my time had been frozen. The Judiciary Ombudsman should be retained in the Chief Justice’s office. I propose that we delete that from the Constitution. The role of disciplining, reprimanding or suspending a judge should be retained within the Judicial Service Commission (JSC). However, the JSC should allow a tribunal to investigate a judge. That is practiced all over the world. We know what happens in this country. Somebody can easily chase you if they do not like your face. The Judiciary Ombudsman should remain in the Chief Justice’s office. They should be allowed to do their work because they have done it well. When we launched the strategic plan in 2017 and 2018 when I was the Chairperson of the Committee on Justice, Legal Affairs and Human Rights, there were 3,515 complaints against the Judiciary. The Judicial Ombudsman addressed 2,324 complaints. That is significant. Let us allow the Judiciary Ombudsman to remain in the office of the Chief Justice. The Inspector General of Police should not be given unvested powers to promote or discipline officers. Instead, he should work as per Article 245 of the Constitution. Promotions and discipline should be done with the approval of the National Police Service Commission (NPSC). If the Inspector General of police is given all that power, they can fire an Officer Commanding a Police Station (OCS) if they do not like them. The Inspector General of police has girlfriends and boyfriends and they can give them those positions. We know how raw power can work. I do not know if we have had an imperial presidency because we had President Moi. In this Constitution, there is recreation of an imperial presidency. We should not give the Inspector General of police unvested power because we know what happens"
}