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{
    "id": 127067,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/127067/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 419,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Mr. Kioni",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 49,
        "legal_name": "Jeremiah Ngayu Kioni",
        "slug": "jeremiah-kioni"
    },
    "content": "Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, that is another reason why the Cabinet needs to be trimmed so that it can be able to respond to issues like this one. Because of their huge number, they do not know where they should be at any given time. If you witnessed, when we started debating this Bill, the Front Bench was virtually empty. But now, when we have three Assistant Ministers--- I want to support this Bill because the number of Cabinet Ministers has made it difficult for them to serve the people. We have had occasions in this House where Ministers have said that they are guided by their conscience to vote against specific Government decisions. It is important to ask whether, at the point when they took an oath of office and undertook to defend the Constitution, that conscience was still there. It is important for us to know whether that conscience is switched off and on like we do with electricity power in our houses. Because these Members of the Cabinet are so many, they do not quite know what is expected of them. I support the idea that this Bill does not need to be implemented in the next Government. At the Committee Stage, it is important for us to amend Clause 8 that requires that this be done in the next Cabinet meeting and implemented now. Kenyans want changes now and all of us are agreeable to that fact. Having said that, I have looked at the number of Ministries as listed at the back. There is need to link that to the provisions of the Bill, either in form of schedules or a sub-section. That is because I cannot get the link between the list of Ministries and what is provided for in the Bill. I can see the Ministry of Water and Irrigation. The Department of Irrigation should be put under the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Livestock Development. Without spending a lot of time, other speakers have said that many Ministers are heading departments. It must be depressing for them to just manage a department. People who have been very busy before they joined Parliament are now charged with the responsibility of just managing departments like the Department of Fisheries and Department of Livestock Development, which are now Ministries. The Ministry of Housing has been a department all along. We have the Ministry of Education, which has been split into many small units, so that we can create more Ministries."
}