Entry Instance

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

{
    "id": 1211739,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1211739/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 158,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Nominated, ODM",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. John Mbadi",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 110,
        "legal_name": "John Mbadi Ng'ong'o",
        "slug": "john-mbadi"
    },
    "content": "Look at the issue of Cabinet Secretaries. We recommended that they should come from Parliament. We even said those who came from outside would be made ex-officio Members of Parliament, as the Attorney-General used to be. On the issue of the two-thirds gender principle, this was captured very well in detail and exhaustively in the BBI. I can say in a nutshell that when we proposed this to the people of Kenya, we were called names. I remember Kenya Kwanza and its leadership called us selfish and people interested in grabbing power and extending existence in office of certain unnamed individuals but the target was Uhuru Kenyatta. That we were people who were looking for space for those who should be retiring. That was the word then. We were told we did not focus on the needs of the people of Kenya who were suffering and amendments to the Constitution were not a priority. I do not know whether the people of Kenya are enjoying or if the cost of living is low. Yet when I observe, we are suffering more than last year. Food is unaffordable and there is a drought situation in the country. How I wish President William Ruto stuck to the language and script he used while he campaigned, that he would make Kenyans have bearable lives. Instead of writing a memorandum to us on issues we can deal with, we can sit down as a country and agree we go the route of constitutional amendment to introduce the Office of the Leader of the Official Opposition and Cabinet Secretaries to become Members of Parliament, instead of passing through the backdoor and escape routes looking for a way to bring strangers in the House. I heard Hon. Murugara say that we allowed some two strangers. The President is not a stranger. Look at the presidential systems across the world, the President is part of a legislative process of the country. That is why he is the last one to assent to Bills. He cannot be a stranger. Another issue which has been brought is the Cabinet Secretary for the National Treasury. This is not a constitutional provision. In the Constitution he is only allowed to make pronouncements. He can make them from Uhuru Park or Kenyatta International Convention Centre (KICC). We are the ones who decided to make provisions in the Standing Orders to allow him to come here. In my view, this is unconstitutional but we are living with it. By the way, those pronouncements add no value. We are only living well with our neighbours in the East African Community (EAC)."
}