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{
"id": 1174831,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1174831/?format=api",
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"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Sen. Orengo",
"speaker_title": "The Senate Minority Leader",
"speaker": {
"id": 129,
"legal_name": "Aggrey James Orengo",
"slug": "james-orengo"
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"content": " Mr. Speaker, Sir, I beg to second that the Senate do adjourn sine die . This may probably be my last speech in a Chamber of Parliament. Maybe, I will address the House in other capacities, but this is probably my last speech. Mr. Speaker, Sir, I would like to, first of all, thank everybody, the Senators with whom we have had wonderful journey in the last four or five years. I would also like to thank the leadership, the Senate Majority Leader, the Deputy Majority Leader, the Whips in the Majority Side, the Speaker and the Deputy Speaker, and the Leadership in the Minority Side. I would have said more about everybody in the Leadership, but because of time I will not say why I thank them specifically. It has been a wonderful journey together. I hope that in my memories of Parliaments that I have served in, the 12th Parliament and this particular Senate will have a chapter in my book which I am writing. Mr. Speaker, Sir, Parliament cannot be a House of ‘yes’ and ‘no’. I am afraid that in the last two Parliaments, we almost became a Parliament of ‘yes’ and ‘no’. When it comes to the vote, that is when we make judgement of the contributions of both the National Assembly and the Senate. Many Parliaments are remembered not by the speeches of those who went away with the majority. Many parliaments are characterised by the centres. This is why John Kennedy wrote a big book about profiles in courage of people who said things that should not have been said at their time. To that extent, I have enjoyed being in this Senate. Where we have disagreed, I have taken it in good spirit. For instance, when we were confronted with the issue of the formula and the debates that took place in this Parliament. As a matter of record, it may go as some of the most virulent debates of the Senate and the National Assembly. Mr. Speaker, Sir, I thank you for presiding over those sessions which were very critical. When you go back to Bungoma, we shall forever thank you for taking us through the Senate at that time. Whenever I think about Parliaments, I always think about Benjamin Disraeli, the British Prime Minister, who had great contestation with another Prime Minister who was called Gladstone. They called each other names. However, down in history, they are probably some of the best leaders that emerged from the House of Commons because of the debates. Disraeli was Jewish. Remember that, at the Victorian time in that Parliament to have a Jew as a Prime Minister of an Anglo-Saxon nation was not easy. Yet, they used to have these wonderful debates those who respected Gladstone would call him the grand old man and Disraeli would call him the God’s only mistake and it was taken in good measure."
}