GET /api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1120633/?format=api
HTTP 200 OK
Allow: GET, PUT, PATCH, DELETE, HEAD, OPTIONS
Content-Type: application/json
Vary: Accept
{
"id": 1120633,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1120633/?format=api",
"text_counter": 82,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Sen. Orengo",
"speaker_title": "The Senate Minority Leader",
"speaker": {
"id": 129,
"legal_name": "Aggrey James Orengo",
"slug": "james-orengo"
},
"content": "At least Kenya should be showing a good example to our neighbors. We should be leading from the front. We have just had a report here on the elections in Zambia. We are very happy about how Zambia had free and fair elections and access to the voter register without interference. I have sat in South Africa where the President is summoned to appear before Parliament or its Committee and he does so. For example, the Zondo Commission that is looking into State capture. Ministers and former presidents also appear. I do not see the special case for CSs in Kenya to choose to come to Parliament or not that we leave it to their discretion. We must tell them that this power that is given to Parliament is derived from the Constitution. If we do not use that power so that there is transparency and accountability in the conduct of the business of Parliament, then the whole democratic constitutional structure would have no meaning. On this second component, I invite you to agree with me that the conduct of the two CSs requires censure. We should not be in the business of trying to determine whether it was an invitation or a summons. This is because the law says that you can invite or summon. The Senate and Committees have been so kind. They invite, give you a certain number of days to appear and subsequently summon. The discretion is not to the CSs but of the Senate or its committees to decide how you are going to appear through an invitation or summon. That invitation should not be read in its popular parlance as if one is being invited for a tea party. You are being invited to an important business of State, which you must perform. On this second limb of the Motion, I invite all of us to censure these two CSs. Of course, for the consequences, since it was under the direction of the relevant Committee which was dealing with the matter, sanctions should be taken against the two CSs. It should not be just this resolution by the Senate in Plenary. I think there must be some sanctions. The punishment is set out as I have read in the Powers and Privileges Act. Mr. Speaker, Sir, the problem with this matter is that the invitation was not just by the Chair but through the order of the Speaker. You are one of the very few State officials that when you are presiding over our deliberations, you wear a special dress of honour. In the order of things, in terms of protocol and seniority, you are so high up that when you speak, heaven and earth should move. The Speaker is very high both as a Member of this House and the Speaker of Parliament. On the second one, I do not want to say much because the people out there are crying. Many Members have expressed themselves even yesterday during the debate on the cost of fuel and electricity. Every one of us has talked about the fact that this escalation in the cost of fuel and electricity is unbearable."
}