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{
    "id": 1267865,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1267865/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 80,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Oketch Gicheru",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "Good morning, Mr. Speaker, Sir. I have not been in the House for a while and I thank you for the support. I am still on sick leave, but sometimes it is sickly to be at home and not to be here. Sometimes the deliberations here are more important than being at home. I thank you so much for allowing me the flexibility to show up sometimes. This is a pertinent issue. Sometimes it is hard for me to chime in because as you are aware, the Minority side is still in court on this particular issue of Cabinet Secretaries appearing before the House. I wanted to contribute in the spirit of being in the Senate. Perhaps, our collective ideology is that this House should be the ‘Upper’ House. In some areas, we can deliberate and have a conversation on whether we should rethink some of the decisions we have made. This is one of the instances that, perhaps the Minority side had predicted. We might have worse instances where Cabinet Secretaries might want to disparage the Standing Orders of this House for the same purpose that perhaps constitutionally, they are not obligated to obey the Standing Order of this House. I believe I will be speaking for the Minority side when I say that there is a desire, and rightfully so, to have Cabinet Secretaries appear before the Houses of Parliament. If you read the Constitution, it does delineate the responsibility and accountability framework for Cabinet Secretaries. That delineation is limited to the extent that they have to appear before committees. So, this is a challenge that we are dealing with as a country. I encourage the Senate to have a higher conversation on how we should make the accountability framework even stronger. To some extent, we might be faced with issues like proposing a constitutional amendment because the decisions, responsibilities and accountability for Cabinet Secretaries are well articulated under Article 153, which we have talked about many times and I want to go back to it for the purposes of this conversation. The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Director, Hansard Services,Senate."
}