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{
"id": 110747,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/110747/?format=api",
"text_counter": 437,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Mr. Chachu",
"speaker_title": "",
"speaker": {
"id": 18,
"legal_name": "Francis Chachu Ganya",
"slug": "francis-ganya"
},
"content": "Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, we have Parliament and the Senate that are going to impeach a rogue President. We have recourse and safeguard in this Draft Constitution whereby even if we impeach a President, we do not necessarily have to pack and go home. We will send the Executive home, but stay behind to deliver and do what Kenyans have elected us to do. I think that is a very good separation of power between the two. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, the autonomy of Parliament is also being enhanced through the Parliamentary Service Commission and also some serious role that Parliament is given in the Budget making process. We will have very strong Parliamentary Committees with full powers to investigate and play some key oversight role when it comes to our main and noble duty of having oversight over the state, similar to what is happening to the Congress in the United States of America (USA). Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I have an issue with representation. While I know that representation is the heart of democracy, and we are here to represent people, I think that emphasis on population where we are saying that the formula of all the constituencies and wards should be as nearly as is possible to the population code of the nation, discriminates against the sparsely populated communities of this nation. It puts so much emphasis on population at the expense of all other parameters including geography, community interests and means of communication. This particular element needs to be addressed and amended. Effective representation is a right enshrined in this Constitution for all Kenyans. For example, my constituency is 39,800 square kilometres and it is the largest in this nation. It is larger than Western, Nyanza and Central provinces combined by a few square kilometres. That constituency, under that formula, might not be able to get a second constituency. Even the first one will hardly pass as it is. With poor infrastructure and very poor means of communication, how can a Member of Parliament effectively represent those Kenyans? Whether they are 200,000 Kenyans in Embakasi or 200 in Ileret, all those Kenyans need to be represented effectively by their Member of Parliament. For example, on the issue of senators, at Independence, the national representation of Upper Eastern was at 3.2 per cent. Today, 47 years after Independence, it has reduced to 2.8 per cent. With this kind of formula in this Constitution, it might even go down to 1 per cent. It is not fair. We should take care of our diversity, special needs as a nation and make sure that all Kenyans are catered for to the best of our knowledge and to the extent which our Constitution and resources can accommodate. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I really endorse this Constitution in the aspect that through the Equalization of Fund, it has enshrined affirmative action in our Constitution. It recognizes inequity in this country. By doing that, it strives to cure the imbalances in terms of development that were created by Sessional Paper No.10 of 1965, which basically argued that the resources of this nation should be better invested in highly endowed areas at the expense of the so-called areas with very low potential. This particular provision of having this equalization Fund, to a degree, will go far in investing in some of the areas which have lagged behind in development. It is clearly spelt out that 0.5 per cent of all the revenues collected by National Government every year will go in improving roads, provision of electricity, water and all other basic needs in the marginal areas of Kenya."
}