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{
    "id": 1087114,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1087114/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 133,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Mutula Kilonzo Jnr",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13156,
        "legal_name": "Mutula Kilonzo Jnr",
        "slug": "mutula-kilonzo-jnr"
    },
    "content": "Madam Deputy Speaker, the second part interests me a lot in that Sen. (Dr.) Zani seeks to get the decisions and resolutions of this House complied with and a report sent back to Parliament. I remember one of us drafted a Petition seeking to get back the Implementation Committee as one of the Committees of Parliament. Its purpose is to follow up on the resolutions of the Senate in so far as the Executive, the Judiciary and other State organs are concerned. Madam Deputy Speaker, the solution is to get a report through an Act of Parliament as opposed to a Committee. As I speak, even after making determinations on the Solai Dam tragedy, we have never received responses from the respective Government organs. The Committee on County Public Accounts and Investments (CPAIC) sits every day to make resolutions. We never receive responses from respective Government organs in terms of the resolutions we have made. This is the solution. Some time back after visiting the Senate of Australia, some of us were of the view that we should include in the Parliamentary Privileges Act, contempt of Parliament. This is where a resolution is made to a respective Cabinet Secretary (CS) and he does not respond or seek to implement the resolutions of the Senate. This is the answer to what Sen. (Dr.) Zani is trying to resolve through this Bill. Article 124 of the Constitution says Parliament has powers as those of a high court, then we should have powers to jail and declare contempt where it has been found. The former President of South Africa, Jacob Zuma, is now serving a jail term for contempt of court. If we act as a court, we must have the power to have contempt. It is through the resolutions of the Senate that we can find CSs and respective Government organs to have violated our resolutions. We appreciate the work that the Clerk is doing and the reminders he does to CSs and other arms of Government with respect to our resolutions. However, I am afraid they are not effective or powerful enough to find action points. Part of the reason we were supporting having CSs in Parliament was because some of these problems we are having today would be solved if CSs were sitting as elected leaders and some of them sitting in Parliament. We would then question them on the Floor and they would answer to Kenyans. The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposes only.A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor, Senate."
}