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{
    "id": 111365,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/111365/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 320,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Mrs. Ongoro",
    "speaker_title": "The Assistant Minister for Nairobi Metropolitan Development",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 125,
        "legal_name": "Elizabeth Ongoro Masha",
        "slug": "elizabeth-ongoro"
    },
    "content": " Thank you, Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir. I rise to give my support for the Draft Constitution before this House. However, before I say why I support this Draft Constitution, I think it would be in order for me to state why I have problems with the current Constitution. The current Constitution has a lot of defects, chief amongst them is that it puts too much power in the hands of one person. Again, power is concentrated in one region which is Nairobi. Secondly, it does not have adequate accountability measures that can help this country deal with corruption. Corruption that has permeated generally even within the Executive and most recently, what we have seen exhibited by the police. I also think that our current Constitution does not guarantee equal and fair distribution of national resources. This has been a bone of contention for many years and it is time we had a Constitution that enshrines the equal distribution of resources to all parts of this country. The current Constitution also discriminates against vulnerable groups like women, children and marginalised communities and some ethnic groups. In view of that, I have taken my time to read the Draft Constitution that has been presented before us and of particular interest are the provisions that are contained in the Bill of Rights. What really excites me is the creation of independent institutions. The proposed draft gives serious consideration to the distribution of power through the creation of independent commissions so that anything that is politically contentious, sensitive or anything that needs or requires special skills will be entrusted to independent commissions. Secondly, marginalised and vulnerable groups have been given specific attention with the specific inclusion of children, youth and even those with disabilities. That is a very good provision. There is also a very interesting and new provision on access to information. Access to information has been used to cover mega corruption. If we are going to enshrine this in the Constitution, then the public will have an opportunity to access information that is currently classified and that is being abused by various institutions. Within the Bill of Rights, there is also the creation of Economic and Social Rights which is very interesting because one of the major contention of Kenyans is that sections of the society feel that they are left out of what has been known as the “national cake”. If we have these created, it facilitates the well-being of Kenyans and they are able to access basic needs as a right contained in the constitution. I have also noticed that the new draft has enhanced the operations of human rights bodies and apart from that I have noticed the provisions relating to culture. These have given sufficient safeguard for Intellectual Property Rights. Currently, we have lost a lot of our indigenous knowledge to foreigners who take it to foreign countries and then"
}