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{
    "id": 1093473,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1093473/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 849,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Orengo",
    "speaker_title": "The Senate Minority Leader",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 129,
        "legal_name": "Aggrey James Orengo",
        "slug": "james-orengo"
    },
    "content": "second in command in that Council is the Vice President. I do not sit there and neither do our principals. If something happens to the Vice President anywhere, the best place for him to bring it up is at the National Security Council. Matiang’i cannot act in the absence of the President because the order of responsibility and importance of that Council is spelt out in the Constitution. If you look at the national oaths and affirmations in the Constitution, one of the primary duties of the vice president is to counsel and advise the president. I do not have that responsibility neither does Sen. Olekina. The vice president takes an oath that he shall give his counsel and advise the president of Republic of Kenya. In the current circumstances, the entire country is being told that this gentleman is being ignored. All the powers in the Constitution are intact. They are not given to anybody but the Deputy President. I know we have statutes like the Intergovernmental Relations Act where a statutory duty is given to him. If he loves devolution, he would be calling meetings under that Act almost every week in order to make sure that his responsibilities are carried out. There is another important fact put into consideration but people take it as a joke. There are two people in the Republic that the security forces must always know where they are by the nature of their office. Even whether the President of the Republic of Kenya is on a private visit or eating lunch with his children, the security forces must know where he is because if something happens, there will be a constitutional problem. If this Constitution is working in accordance with what is required in a democratic republic with a system like the one we have, the Deputy President cannot be somewhere where the security forces do not know. He has been compared to Jaramogi Oginga Odinga. When things did not work, Jaramogi Oginga Odinga resigned. Therefore, he could travel anywhere that he wanted. He did not have that problem once he left the Government. He was just a citizen like me. Nobody can stop you at the airport. If the Deputy President thinks that travelling outside the country is the most important responsibility he has, then vacating that office will give him all the time. He can go to any part of the world that he likes. He should stop crying to the Opposition. Jubilee Party was so lucky. We accepted the “Handshake” but said that we do not want to join the Government. We are just supporting things that make sense to us. When the Security Laws (Amendment) Bill came here, we opposed it. So, we are in unique circumstances even in this one year. If bottom-up was not just a slogan, he can do it in the remaining one year but we will see wonders. We should see the kind of miracles they want to create in this Republic. I would like to say that there is uncivil insurrection within the Government and that needs to be dealt with. It is nothing short of uncivil insurrection. I am not talking about criminal insurrection but there is an uncivil political insurrection within the Government. There is a fifth column with the Government but it is not supposed to work that way. In the US, more than 150 years ago, there was a vice president known as Calhoun. When he could not work with the president, he resigned. There was another called Spiro Agnew who was full of scandals and he also resigned. Scandals seems to visit vice presidents everywhere. Even in South Africa, there is one who was in similar circumstances and he had to leave office."
}