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{
    "id": 1087117,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1087117/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 136,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Wambua",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13199,
        "legal_name": "Enoch Kiio Wambua",
        "slug": "enoch-kiio-wambua"
    },
    "content": "Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker. I take this opportunity to, first, congratulate Sen. (Dr.) Zani for coming up with this wonderful amendment to the Parliament Powers and Privileges Act. Before I get to the subject matter of the Bill, last week, this House took some time to talk about issues of action or inaction in as far as its resolutions and recommendations are concerned to relevant Government officials in the Executive. This Bill provides a broad answer to that question. The question of whether a House of Parliament in the Republic of Kenya can legislate or make resolutions in vain. For me, this Bill does two important things. One, it makes it mandatory that once a resolution is made by any House of Parliament, that resolution must be directed to a specific officer within seven days. That is not even open ended. Within seven days, a responsible officer must receive a resolution of either the Senate or the National Assembly. The second thing this Bill does is that it puts an obligation on the officer to do two things. One, to give a status report to the relevant Committee and the House that has made a resolution on implementation of the said resolution. Secondly, it imposes a fine and jail term for breach of the provisions of the Bill. I think if there is a Bill that we need to fast track, then this is that Bill. There was a lot of heated debate and contributions from Members seeking to have the Implementation Committee returned to the House to follow up on resolutions. Madam Deputy Speaker, the matter at hand that time was a resolution of this House that was first passed in the last Parliament on the payment of former councilors. The term of the last Parliament elapsed and the 12th Parliament came in. Through Statements and Motions, one of those Statements was brought by me and a Motion was brought by Sen. Kinyua. This House resolved that the former councilors should be paid a one-off honoraria and a monthly stipend. That resolution is lying somewhere in the shelves of Government offices. It is my hope that once this Bill goes through, certain things like those ones, like the payment for councilors shall be resolved immediately and maybe even backdated to ensure that people get justice. It is not just about councilors alone. It is about almost everything that we do in this House. 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."
}