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{
    "id": 1120618,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1120618/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 67,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Orengo",
    "speaker_title": "The Senate Minority Leader",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 129,
        "legal_name": "Aggrey James Orengo",
        "slug": "james-orengo"
    },
    "content": "and ordinary citizens going about their lives. It was not without significance that the Speaker ordered that the two Cabinet Secretaries appear before the Committee of the Whole. Yesterday, the Committee of the Whole met, but the Cabinet Secretaries did not attend. Part of the information to the House was that there was non-compliance and contempt to the House for purposes of these particular proceedings on the rising cost of fuel and electricity. The appearance of various Cabinet Secretaries before various committees had taken a bad turn because it was notorious due to non-observance by the Cabinet Secretaries, whether they were invited or summoned. We have some Cabinet Secretaries who do not even respond officially to invitations. Some say that some matters are not part of their docket or the Senate does not have those responsibilities. I think this is an occasion for us to send a message clearly to the Executive because this is something that does not apply just to individual Cabinet Secretaries, including the ones we wish to censure today, but to all other public officers who have a duty to appear when invited or summoned by Parliament, including the Senate. It is also important to note the significance of a censure Motion. A censure Motion may be a little bit different from a Motion of no confidence, but I think the effect or impact on the individual Cabinet Secretary is more or less the same. Under our present constitutional order, there must be an appropriate process for the removal of a Cabinet Secretary. However, that does not mean that this House cannot censure or express its lack of confidence in any individual Cabinet Secretary. This issue is so serious. I want to remind the House and those who were there before, including the Attorney-General emeritus, that Motions of censure or Motions of no confidence on various Ministers - at that time they were called Ministers - have been moved in Parliament. The significance of moving those Motions was never lost, not just to Parliament, but to the Executive and individual Cabinet Secretaries who were subject to Motions of no confidence or Motions of censure. In Kenya, at least there is one incident that I can demonstrate and elsewhere in the Commonwealth where they have pure presidential systems. When a censure Motion is moved by Parliament or any of the Houses of Parliament, willy-nilly, you will find the Cabinet Secretary or the Minister resigning even before the matter is discussed, or they will not defend themselves. They will hear what Parliament has to say and then resign. If the Motion is against a leader of Government, not only would that leader resign, but the entire Cabinet would resign because of expression of no confidence in a leader of the Government. That is what happened on 27th April, 1989, when we had a Motion of no confidence. I hope Sen. Wetangula will correct me if I am wrong. Under the old Constitution, there was provision for moving a Motion of no confidence in the Government of the Republic of Kenya, but there were no clear procedures for censuring or moving a Motion of no confidence against a Minister. Over the years, there were such Motions moved. One of them, that was critical, was the Motion of no confidence moved on 27th April, 1989 against the then Vice President, Mr. Josephat Karanja, and he did not defend himself."
}