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{
"id": 1215452,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1215452/?format=api",
"text_counter": 261,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Sen. Sifuna",
"speaker_title": "",
"speaker": {
"id": 13599,
"legal_name": "Sifuna Edwin Watenya",
"slug": "sifuna-edwin-watenya"
},
"content": "Mr. Speaker, Sir, first, I am personally glad that you are back in that Chair as the substantive Speaker of this House. I am happy with the last thing that you have said about the powers of the Deputy Speaker and Members of the Speaker’s Panel. Mr. Speaker, Sir, the person who made it an issue, was the person who was then sitting on that Chair. In fact, we made the argument that there cannot be business brought in the House and then we are told to wait for the substantive Speaker. The problem we find ourselves in is that we were told here that the communication on the changes in the leadership of the Minority side has to wait for the substantive Speaker. The HANSARD can bear me witness. In fact, if you look at the HANSARD proceedings of that day, I remember asking the question that if, indeed, a matter as simple as a communication, cannot be made by a person other than the substantive Speaker, then really, no one else would have the power to transact any other business. In my view, communication such as the ones you have made about visitors in the gallery is a matter so simple and straightforward. It does not have to wait for the substantive Speaker. Mr. Speaker, Sir, first of all, having listened to you this afternoon, as a Senator elected to this House, I am ashamed of what happened in the past two weeks. I bear that shame together with all the Members of this Senate. We came here to discuss substantive matters that affect the people of Kenya. If we are going to address the significant difference between the First Session that we had as a House and this particular Session, we must go to the root cause of all the events of the past two weeks. It is not enough for us to be admonished and told we are behaving unruly or in conduct that is not in line with the standings of a Member of this Senate. Mr. Speaker, Sir, we as a House must ask ourselves questions. I asked this question last week. What happened to the collegiate nature of the debate that we used to have in this particular house, in the First Session? If you were following those proceedings, our position has remained that in fact, the Speaker of this House, has no role whatsoever in dealing with the matter of a communication in the changes of the leadership in the Minority or the Majority side. Mr. Speaker, Sir, we have come to this particular juncture because of a matter that in our view is very straightforward. The Minority have made a decision to change their leadership. All that we are waiting for is this communication. We have likened this to a soccer game between Gor Mahia and Abaluhyia Football Club (AFC). When the coach for AFC stands up to make a substitution and then the referee in that game says you cannot make that substitution; it is absurd. We want to respect the rules of this House. Mr. Speaker, Sir, our greatest frustration is when we see the application of this rules being selective. It would not offend me, for instance, if somebody misconducted them and I saw fair application of the rules. We are very serious people. We have here very serious agenda. As the Senator for Nairobi, this morning, I saw traders from Nyamakima in the street, exercising their rights under Article 37, to demonstrate peacefully, about the invasion of the Chinese into the retail market of this country. They"
}