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{
    "id": 1121421,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1121421/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 166,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Orengo",
    "speaker_title": "The Senate Minority Leader",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 129,
        "legal_name": "Aggrey James Orengo",
        "slug": "james-orengo"
    },
    "content": " Thank you, Madam Temporary Speaker. I support this. It may later on occur that probably this report and the subject we are dealing with is a very important issue that defines what Kenya is at the moment, what Kenya should be and the direction we are headed. It is critical and I will give my reasons. In 1787 when Benjamin Franklin was very well known – he is in the popular culture – while he was walking out of the Independence Hall, out of the Constitutional Convention in 1787 in USA, as he walked out, somebody asked him; “Doctor, what have we got; a Republic or a Monarchy?” Benjamin Franklin retorted; “A Republic, if you may keep it.” This remark by Benjamin Franklin has been cited many times. More importantly, in the last one and a half years when they have gone through experiences, that even an old modern Republic like the USA, have wondered whether they were moving in the right direction. The Speaker of the USA House of Representatives, the well-renowned Madam Pelosi, has used this remark by Benjamin Franklin. This is particularly after the 2020 elections, when the American Republic was suffering from so many challenges. A Republic is a Government by the people through its elected representatives. It is not just through the elected representatives as portrayed in Article One of the Constitution of Republic of Kenya, it is actually a Government based on sovereignty of the people. Therefore, Madam Temporary Speaker, all of us in public offices heading important institutions must be guided by the law and the Constitution. There is this great debate in the Greek democracy of whether we have a Government of men or laws. Constantly, in modern democracies, it has been found that you are better off with a Government of laws as opposed to a Government of men. If you look at the context in which our Constitution was drafted and enacted, it was through a period when the Executive and even the Judiciary was amassing power. In Parliament, we made statements. I personally kept on quoting a British judge who kept on saying that the Judiciary and judges should not be more executive than the Executive. This the context in which our Constitution was founded. In the last 40 years, our experience has not been very different from the colonial days, that, the Judiciary was becoming more and more a tool of the Executive. The provisions my Chairman has referred to on how you appoint judges and particularly the CJ, was born out of this context. Before, the President used to appoint the CJ and judges. In fact, what would have probably mirrored what we should have in Kenya today is that we should have had an American system where the President appoints and the House approves. If the House does not approve, it goes back to the President. Madam Temporary Speaker, because of the experience we have had in Kenya over the years, where the Judiciary was becoming more executive than the Executive –"
}