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"id": 1256824,
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"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Ugunja, ODM",
"speaker_title": "Hon. Opiyo Wandayi",
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"content": "been proposed to it, which in the opinion of the Speaker require harmonisation, the Speaker may direct any Member proposing an Amendment to the Bill to appear before the relevant Departmental Committee dealing with the subject matter of the Bill to present his or her proposed Amendments and the Committee shall submit a report to the House on the result of the exercise before the Committee of the whole House is taken. Hon. Speaker, from the Standing Order 131, you will notice that the Amendments that have been proposed go to the core of the Bill and some have got far reaching ramifications. I just want to plead with you because we have not been told if at all a window was provided to the Departmental Committee on Finance and National Planning, chaired ably by Hon. Kimani Kuria to undertake this harmonisation process. In fact, in parliamentary parlance, it is referred to as winnowing. That would then make the work of the whole House easier. There is much more to it because in the past, previous Speakers and in particular, JB Muturi ruled, when faced with similar situations, where there had been a raft on very many Amendment proposals to a Bill, that the way the winnowing exercise undertaken before the Committee of the whole House can commence. But, he even went further; Article 118 of the Constitution which imposes a duty on this House without reading it and a duty on this House to undertake proper public participation on any Bill before it can be dispensed with or processed… The upshot of this, is buttressed by Standing Order 127(3) which says: The Departmental Committee to which a Bill is committed shall facilitate public participation on the Bill through an appropriate mechanism, including – (a) Inviting submission of memoranda (b) Holding public hearings (c) Consulting relevant stakeholders in a sector (d) Consulting experts on technical subjects. Going by the number of Amendments being proposed, firstly, by the Departmental Committee on Finance and National Planning and, secondly, by various other Members and Chairpersons of other Committees, it would appear that the character of this Bill is likely to change in a comprehensive manner and we are likely to transact business on matters which the public have not been given an opportunity to make their contribution. In other words, on a matter which the public has not participated. I want to give two examples of Bills which had not only been referred back to the Committee for harmonisation, winnowing but were ordered to be republished by the then Speaker, Hon. JB Muturi: Gaming Bill, No.35 of 2019 and Universities (Amendment) Bill of 2021. In those two instances, in respect of those two Bills, Speaker Muturi having assessed the enormity of the proposed Amendments and the likelihood of them changing fundamentally the character of the original Bill and bearing in mind the requirements and the dictates of Article 118 of the Constitution on public participation buttressed by Standing Order 127(3), directed that the Bills not only be harmonised but also be republished."
}