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{
    "id": 1174553,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1174553/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 161,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. M. Kajwang’",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13162,
        "legal_name": "Moses Otieno Kajwang'",
        "slug": "moses-otieno-kajwang"
    },
    "content": "House. We know that it is the Parliamentary Service Commission that has disabled the Senate from engaging legal aid and legal assistance and getting legal services. The same Parliamentary Service Commission allows the National Assembly to get premium legal representation and the Senate is starved of resources and approvals. Therefore, we have to use our in-House staff. If it were not for most advocates in this House, who have volunteered pro bono, probably we would have lost all the matters that we have taken to court. Even when we go on recess Sine Die and everyone goes home to campaign, the Senate is not just the Members of the Senate. We have a very able secretariat and legal team. We must put up a fight because if we are helpless, then I do not know what we will be telling our people when we are campaigning. What are we going to do for them when all our powers of oversight are being taken away and the definition of Parliament is being changed through the backdoor using some of these omnibus Bills? When even the tenure of a Member of Parliament is being affected, the presumption of innocence until guilt is proven. If an amendment talks of a Senator, a Member of the National Assembly, and a Member of the County Assembly (MCA) not being able to represent the people because they are under investigation--- We have seen how some of these bodies have been used. Even though the issue of weaponization of some of these agencies has come from a certain political corner, it is not far-fetched that, that weaponisation can affect all players in the political field. We should not allow some of those things to go through. Madam Deputy Speaker, I encourage Sen. Omogeni that in the diagnosis of the problem, he should once again rise up, using his legal experience, knowledge and intellect, to help our legal team in the Senate to ensure that we put up a strong fight, not just on these omnibus Bills, but also on the issues before the superior courts on compliance with Article 110. Finally, I am glad that today, a State Officer who was impeached is barred from running again for public office. However, if we stretched that a little bit further, this Senate has declared various State Officers to be unfit to hold public office. Unfortunately, recommendations of this House have never been taken seriously. What should be the impact and the finality of a declaration by Parliament that a State Officer is unfit to hold public office? It should count for something. It should bar them from further appointments. It should bar them from getting engaged in further services to the nation. If that was then the effect of being declared unfit to hold public office, then some of the people behind the violation of the Constitution and Article 110 should be declared unfit to hold public office and they should not be allowed to sit anywhere, be it in the PSC or serve as Speakers. The problem we have is not just a problem of the law, but a problem of people thinking that they are smart and the Senate is inferior and it does not have intellectual leadership that is able to discern some of these things. I hope that in the next Parliament, we are going to cure unhealthy and unhelpful competition between the Senate and the National Assembly. We can co-exist. The Constitution has given us joint functions and some functions are unique. Therefore, we can co-exist."
}