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{
    "id": 1174849,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1174849/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 184,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Wako",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 366,
        "legal_name": "Amos Sitswila Wako",
        "slug": "amos-wako"
    },
    "content": "Mr. Speaker, Sir, I recollect that on 3rd December, 1991, I personally moved the constitutional amendment to delete Section 2(a) of the Constitution. The history of this country in constitutional matters can be divided into two. From Independence up to 1991 when I moved that Motion. The second one is between 1963 and 1991 where there were many amendments which sort of interfered with constitutionalism in this country. Some amendments were good, but many were bad. From 3rd December, 1991, the amendments that were done through Parliament under my watch were basically reform amendments. They included reforms of the Constitution and legislation. It was just reforms which then culminated into the promulgation of the new Constitution on 27th August, 2010. I was privileged to be the Attorney General at that time. The challenge that I see the next Senate having is ensuring that we do not fall back to the history of Kenya as it was between 1963 and 1991. This is in terms of constitutional amendments. The Independent Constitution, right from the word go was dismantled and there were throwbacks amendments and so on. Since we came here as the 11th Parliament, our job has been to maintain the new Constitution. In fact, I did not want to stand for election as Senator on retirement as the Attorney General. I had even already made my own arrangements to open an office for International Commercial Arbitration. I had been elected to the International Law Commission of the United Nations (UN). I will be retiring from that post at the end of this year. However, my people convinced me that since that was the first election under the new Constitution and I had watched the birth of it, I should be in the Senate to ensure that the Constitution is well defended and start on a proper footing. As it may be recalled, when we came here in the 11th Parliament for the first Session of the Senate, we faced major challenges on our legislative power. As Chairperson of the Committee on Justice, Legal Affairs and Human Rights, I advised the then Speaker to challenge the decision of the Speaker of the National Assembly. The Speaker of the National Assembly had ruled that the Senate could only debate the County Allocation Bill and not debate the Division of Revenue Bill. We did this by way of an Advisory Opinion in the Supreme Court and I am glad that we succeeded. Going forward, I hope that the Advisory Opinion of the Supreme Court of Kenya at that time, will carry us in good state for the future. That decision more or less restored our legislative power to the extent that this Senate can debate any Bill; even a Bill on touching on the security of counties. Therefore, this Senate has a legitimate right to debate those Bills. The challenge now is to ensure that going forward that is done."
}