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"content": "It has also been given the duty of conducting proceedings to impeach the President. But those proceedings will be initiated by the National Assembly. It is important to say that because a lot of people have commented and wondered why the senate is the way it is. The distinguishing feature is that we are a unitary state. If you look at the Constitution of Kenya Review Act, 2008, the design of that law which guided the constitutional review was for a unitary state. That is what this National Assembly passed; a design for a unitary state. Therefore, the COE has provided, together with the Parliamentary Select Committee, a senate to serve a unitary, not a federal state. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, when it is a federal state, the National Assembly in our case or the House of Representatives in America, are normally based on the strict equality of the vote. To act as a check and balance on the majority and to protect and safeguard the minority, the Senate is then based on the equality of the State. We ought not to get confused to design two Houses that are unequal. What the CoE has proposed here is good enough and protects every citizen. It protects the majority. It protects and safeguards the minority. That is why a deviation of 30 per cent in the circumstances is allowed. I want to laud this document for coming up with the idea of the Equalization Fund. For too long, we have been talking about the marginalized. We have been talking about areas that have lacked development for most of the time. This Equalization Fund, which will be a substantial Fund, will then accelerate development, so that all areas of Kenya can be, nearly as possible, equal in services and infrastructure. Then we can truly be one Kenya, one nation, one people. When the disparities exist, such as exist today in development, they are a recipe for people not feeling that they are one and they belong. The Bill of Rights which has already been lauded has something very special. Today, if a person or an organization goes to court to enforce the Bill of Rights in a matter that does not relate to them, but relates to another or to Kenyans in general, the court will dismiss them and call them busybodies. In this draft, the Bill of Rights is allowing any citizen, a group of citizens or an organization to enforce the Bill of Rights through going to the constitutional court, which in this case will be the Supreme Court. This will allow us as citizens, not to merely urge the Government to do things, but to also challenge the Government and a get a court pronouncement that will give direction. It reminds me that for close to four years now, Kenyans have been lamenting to the Government about extra-judicial killings. With this kind of provision, we will not have to look for Professor Ashton. We will not have to beg the State, but we will be able to enforce through the Bill of Rights. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, in the case of irregular appointments, if Parliament does not act, citizens will have recourse. They can challenge. I can hear my learned colleague saying: What about the courts? We know the weaknesses in our courts. This draft Constitution is supposed to give a rebirth to our country. Therefore, there is provision for ensuring that the Judiciary is reborn once again. That is not by another radical surgery which may fail, but through a systematic way of doing things. First, is by revamping the Judicial Service Commission (JSC), by ensuring that it has two professionals from the private sector and two from the Law Society of Kenya (LSK) and several from the Government. The current JSC has only people from the Government. With the injection of four members from the private sector, we should see a JSC that does better than the current one. We do not want to have a JSC that appoints judges and then"
}