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{
    "id": 1220179,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1220179/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 134,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Ugenya, MDG",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. David Ochieng’",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 2955,
        "legal_name": "David Ouma Ochieng'",
        "slug": "david-ouma-ochieng"
    },
    "content": "Secretary for a certain portfolio 10 years down the line because of this situation. We want Kenyans to know what Parliament is doing. The only way for this to happen is to have Cabinet Secretaries come before this House and answer so that Kenyans get to know that Parliament is working. There has been laxity on the side of the Cabinet Secretaries. Comparative analysis shows that where Cabinet Secretaries appear before a House as a whole, there is more oversight, more scrutiny and Cabinet Secretaries take their work more seriously as opposed to a situation like now where they appear before a few Members of Parliament – 19 or 20 –and they feel they have done their duty. Currently, Cabinet Secretaries feel that they owe allegiance to and only need to answer questions before Members of a relevant Committee, such that if a Member of Parliament from Funyula, my friend Oundo, asks a Question to the Cabinet Secretary in charge of Interior, the Cabinet Secretary knows only 19 Members that he sees every day. He thinks that he should not be held to account by Hon. Oundo because there is nowhere he meets him. He thinks that the few Members who approve his budget are the only ones who should be asking questions. We want to subject Cabinet Secretaries to the power of the whole House anytime any day. That is why in the proposed amendments to Standing Orders, we are proposing that the Speaker will designate a place in this Assembly where every Wednesday afternoon, the Cabinet Secretaries will appear before us to answer Questions asked by Members the previous week. What will happen is that every Wednesday afternoon, we will convert this House to a plenary where Cabinet Secretaries answer Questions. We provided that the Leader of the Majority Party will be telling us one week before the Cabinet Secretaries that will appear before the House the following week to answer Questions from Members. On the same note, Members will have a chance to ask supplementary questions on their feet. If a Cabinet Secretary gives an answer that is not satisfactory, Members will have a chance to stand on their feet to ask further questions. That will happen if the answer given either does not satisfy Members or does not touch their constituencies. It is important to note, because I have heard Members saying this will take away the powers of Committee Chairs, that this will actually give Committee Chairs more time to deal thoroughly with issues before them. They will have time to do investigations, hold the Cabinet Secretaries to account in a deeper manner because now we are giving them…What Committees mostly do now is to deal with Members’ Questions, not to delve into deeper issues. I just want to assuage the fears of Committee Chairs about this Question Time for Cabinet Secretaries. It will give them more time to deal with more meat within their committees instead of dealing with Questions only. There are so many reasons why it is important to have Cabinet Secretaries appear in this House. I want Members to look at this report that we circulated. I do not want to go through it because it is a huge report but to just request Members to note that this House will be richer with all of us being able to hold the Cabinet Secretaries to account instead of a few Members of a Committee being the only ones that are required to hold the Cabinet Secretaries to account all the time. Now, Cabinet Secretaries will not shrug responsibility by only dealing with Committee Members under their charge instead of appearing before the House all the time. Hon. Deputy Speaker, I do not want to say much. I just want to inform Members that before we did this Report, we did some benchmarking. We have checked what happens in Philippines, Belarus, Gabon and France. The Report will make the House richer instead of poorer. I request Hon. Members to take this in a positive way. Further, in these amendments, we propose to rename the Departmental Committee on Administration and Internal Affairs to the Departmental Committee on Administration and Internal Security. We also propose to rename the Departmental Committee on Blue Economy and Irrigation to the Departmental Committee on Blue Economy, Water and Irrigation. The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor."
}