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"id": 1087144,
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"speaker_name": "Sen. Sakaja",
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"legal_name": "Johnson Arthur Sakaja",
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"content": "that it is in the process of getting those elected leaders that they get into office because they are not from Parliament. This is why the calls that have been there previously for Ministers to come back from Parliament are very popular, not just among parliamentarians, but among the people. Members of Parliament and elected leaders go through these issues, they understand, they interact with the people and they interact with Members who are representing other areas. If Sen. Mutula Kilonzo Jnr. was a Minister and today I had an issue in Nairobi, I can ask him even after this sitting, why do we not solve this issue? However, before we send a letter that needs seven days for them to come and respond and they write a letter postponing and then when they come here they take us round in circles, we end up shortchanging and disenfranchising the voter who wants decisions made. Madam Deputy Speaker, this House has made resolutions. Right now, my Committee is following up the second resolution on the same issue on former councilors. The last Senate resolved and they are saying it is a task force. I think part of what Sen. (Dr.) Zani should have put in was not just that they respond and report. They can give you Government reports. Otherwise, they will take you around in circles that a task force was formed to look into this and, therefore, we shall report or do this when funds allow. They have reported; they have not gone against the law. However, they have done nothing. So, we need to tighten that that these responses and reports must be effected and they must be specific. We passed a resolution in this House about evictions when there was that incident in Kariobangi. I remember at that time they were going to do evictions in Lang’ata. I am glad that one was halted and I want to thank the Government for that. However, today we are hearing that there are more planned evictions in Eastlands during the pandemic and yet we resolved that you cannot just execute demolitions and evictions during a pandemic. That just shows the disdain and lack of respect not towards us, but to the people. Whenever I go to an office I always say it is not me who is coming, but 4.3 million Nairobians who I was elected to represent. So, it is never personal. We passed resolutions on Solai Dam after more than 42 children died. We went there and we have huge reports. In fact, Sen. Mutula Kilonzo Jnr. is about to become a librarian because he has huge reports in his office, but action is not taken. Sometimes even when we speak about issues, we understand the frustration of the public because they say all we ever do is talk. It is true, our work is to talk that is why it is Parliament; from the root word of parlance. However, that talk must translate into action by the Executive. I wish we would put in place an enforcement mechanism. Yes, we have put a fine of Kshs500,000 or imprisonment, but we should be able to execute it as Parliament. When you tell the police to go and arrest the CS, of Interior Coordination, of course, they will not do so. Even if the courts call them out for contempt, they cannot do it. So, the CSs sit pretty. We need to put in place an enforcement mechanism. I wish it was our Serjeant-at-Arms who were being told to enforce what we call “contempt of Parliament”. Contempt of Parliament must be in the Penal Code and it must be punishable because it is contempt of the people. We need to make sure that even as we do our oversight, we do it in a respectful way. 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."
}