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{
    "id": 1097645,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1097645/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 124,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Ndaragwa, JP",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Jeremiah Kioni",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 49,
        "legal_name": "Jeremiah Ngayu Kioni",
        "slug": "jeremiah-kioni"
    },
    "content": "I want to open my statement by reading what Justice Fatuma said: “If amending the Constitution is too difficult, it may lead to revolutionary tactics to bring about changes. Those who make peaceful revolutions impossible will make violent revolutions possible”. With your permission, we went and visited Brazil at the beginning of this term, as the CIOC. Our experience in Brazil is something that we need to learn from as Members of this House and also as a country. They have a Constitution that is, by and large, similar to ours, even in terms of age but, they ran into a problem. They are now trying to get out of the problem they ran into. The problem they are in is that the country is no longer controlled by the Executive or the Legislature, but by the Judiciary. They are trying to get their way out of that control by the Judiciary. These are not tell-tales. These are not things we are guessing around. They are things happening in a country that we visited as MPs. The mistake they made was that they allowed the Judiciary’s overreach. Today in Brazil, the Judiciary can arrest even an MP from the Floor. They can start a case against the President at any time. These are issues that we need to be aware of and be careful about. Yesterday, we were out in Turkana County, Lodwar. I see my colleague Hon. Yusuf, MP of Kamukunji. We were having public participation on the Constitutional (Amendment) Bill No. 40. The opening statement from one mzee was: “We want everybody elected, including chiefs”. If you allow me to say it in Kiswahili, “kila mtu apigiwe kura”. While we did not get to the depth of that statement, you could see that is a fundamental statement coming from an ordinary person out in the County of Turkana. What informs him to say that he wants everybody voted for? It is something we wanted to go back and ask him but we did not have that time. I know MPs keep saying we have three functions. It is true we have the three functions but Article 94 of our Constitution seems to add another function; that is protecting the Constitution of 2010. It has been given to Members of Parliament. Parliament has the role of protecting the Constitution. I have gone through the functions of the Judiciary. Theirs is to interpret. It is important that we understand that if we are the ones to protect the Constitution, it is unimaginable that somebody can then think that we have to go to the Judiciary every time we want to deal with the Constitution or amend it for them to allow us to do what we are supposed to do, including amending the Constitution. This ruling that was given is useful because it has helped us to get into a lot of debate. I was involved in the making of the Constitution of Kenya 2010 at one stage or another. I cannot remember anywhere where we all wanted to have clauses that were eternal like the Bible. You cannot rewrite the Bible. The Bible was written by God, by Jesus, and you cannot rewrite it. So when you talk of eternal clauses, it is like we gave ourselves clauses that we can no longer touch. We will all die with the way they are written. I do not remember that kind of a discussion where we gave ourselves Articles in the Constitution that we cannot amend. I know and believe that is the discussion we had, that it is the amending of Articles that is different. Some will require a referendum, others will not. Others could be amended through a popular initiative. All these channels were opened in our Constitution. Where we thought they are fundamental issues that relate to our country, we said one needed to go to the people through a referendum. I also want to associate myself with the issue of popular initiative. If it is not again given another interpretation by the courts, it has been taken away from wanjiku because wanjiku cannot amend the Constitution through popular initiative and conduct civic education…"
}