Entry Instance

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

{
    "id": 1151400,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1151400/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 315,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Pareno",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13180,
        "legal_name": "Judith Ramaita Pareno",
        "slug": "judith-ramaita-pareno"
    },
    "content": "Commission like any other. For some reason, there was no provision on how they were going to be appointed. At that time, there was no commissioner and no action could be taken against any act that were violating our peaceful co-existence. This Bill seeks to make a provision as to how commissioners are going to be appointed just like every other commission. It also seeks to even restructure by bringing in a more structured office with fewer commissioners. The term is also to be restructured so that they serve for five years. Commissioners are reduced unlike in the previous Act, which provided for a higher number of them. It provides for a non-renewable term, not for the commissioners but for the secretary to the commission which is renewable once. It also provides for the qualification of appointment for the Secretary to the Commission and also for the Chief Executive officer and accounting officers of the Commission. The Bill also gives a term for the commissioners. Mr. Speaker Sir, Clauses 32 and 42 are provisions that deal with discrimination, hate speech, negative ethnicity. We have new terms that have been introduced that were not there in the original Act and for purposes of effectiveness of this Commission. There are also issues of inclusivity in terms of appointment. There is a provision that is 38(2) that says: “It shall be unlawful for any State or public officer, while in charge of public resources and without justification to distribute resources in an ethnically inequitable manner”. There is the issue of equity in terms of resources and employment because in this country, that has been something that brings a lot of friction between one community and another. You will find many of us complaining and saying that we have not been included in the Cabinet and that appointments are not done properly. That brings a lot of friction and it shall be unlawful if you are found, as a public officer, to have committed that public offence. I am trying to be as precise as possible. Mr. Speaker, Sir, all we are saying, as far as this Bill is concerned, is that we need to repeal the old one and replace it with this one, giving it more teeth and creating new offences. I remember the other day; the human rights organizations were asking: “Why are you describing new offences? Why are you doing that at this particular time when we are just about to go to an election? Probably, you are looking at the election season”. That is the more reason we need laws that are very effective and precise, so that as we move on as a country, election should not be a season for violence and non-peaceful co-existence. This Bill will serve to make things right not just for one individual or one community, but for purposes of the entire country for us to exist peacefully. Mr. Speaker, Sir, since I had already moved this Bill previously, I now move that this Bill be read a Second Time and ask my colleague, Sen. Farhiya, to second."
}