Entry Instance

HTTP 200 OK
Allow: GET, PUT, PATCH, DELETE, HEAD, OPTIONS
Content-Type: application/json
Vary: Accept

{
    "id": 1122485,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1122485/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 302,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Kisumu East, Independent",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Shakeel Shabbir",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 140,
        "legal_name": "Ahmed Shakeel Shabbir Ahmed",
        "slug": "shakeel-shabbir"
    },
    "content": " Thank you, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker. I stand to oppose this proposal. It has never been common sense to merge two of such institutions unless there is a common strength and synergy. These two have no synergy because they work on different issues. You cannot consolidate. If you are saying that you are trying to consolidate because of expenses, then it does not make sense. If you are consolidating because the two institutions are not serving the purpose for which they were initially put together by the Constitution, then you need to have some sort of research to support that. In this case, there is no justification. It is just that somebody somewhere wishes to restructure these two institutions that were part and parcel of Chapter 4 of the Constitution and the commissions that we set up. I was in the Constitution of Kenya Review Commission (CKRC) and I do not know whether Hon. Kioni was there. We took a lot of time trying to work out how this can be done. In 2011, with the wisdom of Parliament, these were split into three. The idea is to see which one of these three is not working. You cannot say that since a commission must serve between three and nine years, you are now going to reduce costs by putting them together. You can only put certain things together. You can mix oranges with lemons but you cannot mix oranges with apples. The basic reason we went through the Constitution was the Bill of Rights which is one of the best in this world. The basic reason that we went through the Constitution was to recognise the right of women and achieve gender equality. There was also the issue of human rights which have been taken out of perspective. As you were saying, human rights are decided by people in the western world. Are you saying that what is human right for them is not a human right for us? Tomorrow, those students who are burning schools will say that it is their human right. What is that human right? In African society, a right is the one that is earned not the one that is given to you because some westerner has said so. However, we are not undermining the question of human rights. That must happen. I was in Panama when this issue of putting Somalis together and the aspect of human rights came up. The situation was clearly out of place and it was put with a different reason to embarrass Kenya. They forgot the issue of security and other issues. I want to tell Hon. Kioni that you cannot say human rights failed because of that. Human rights failed because they have lost the right direction. If the National Gender Equality Commission is in the right direction, please take it under the commission that was established under Section 59(4) of Chapter 4 of the Constitution on the Bill of Rights. Until they are fully implemented, they cannot be changed by a resolution. It has to be through a referendum. Article 255(1) of the Constitution states that you cannot use restructuring The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor."
}