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{
    "id": 1326355,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1326355/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 101,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Oketch Gicheru",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "Since the ruling, this is the second Wednesday that Members of the Minority have attended the session. In those two consecutive sessions, the Members of the Cabinet have been behaving funny. They do not appear. Mr. Speaker, Sir, if you read the HANSARD, you will realize that even while the matter was in court, I was always able to come to the House and just listen to what was going on. I used to notice that the CSs used to come religiously and attend to their meetings here. I am beginning to think that perhaps it used to be a tete-a-tete between colleagues from the Kenya Kwanza side. It was just a dialogue, that there was no interrogation or nuance perhaps in terms of engaging the CSs. However, now that the Opposition is here to interrogate, scrutinize and be able to ask the right questions, they are running from the House. This is the problem that we had seen. This also indicts the so-called Prime Cabinet Secretary. Mr. Speaker, Sir, I am saying ‘the so-called’ because it is not in the Constitution, but it was created anyway. We disputed it as Members of the Minority side. However, now that it is there, Article 153 of the Constitution on Decisions, Responsibilities and Accountability of the Cabinet lies squarely with the Prime Cabinet Secretary. His duty is to supervise and ensure Members of the Cabinet come to this House, answer questions and be held to account. So, it is an indictment and a big failure on Hon. Musalia Mudavadi. Consequently, before we deal with the individual CSs, there has to be a letter from your desk, perhaps, directed to the Prime Cabinet Secretary, that he is doing very poorly and embarrassing the entire Cabinet, because his Members are not showing up to this House. As I conclude, I have seen in other committees where I have been in, where if we invite different officials in Government and they do not show up, we are very religious also in punishing. We punish by summons and fines because we are mandated to do so. The censure that I was expecting under Standing Order No.51D is one that goes with punishing these Cabinet Secretaries with fines. I hope that these fines cannot only be for the House. If you can be courteous enough, through that fine, you can make sure that Sen. Kinyua, Sen. Chute, Sen. Orwoba get Kshs500,000 and the Majority Leader gets his Kshs1 million. The CSs will then know that this is a very serious House. People should learn to respect our time because that time is extremely valuable. Mr. Speaker, Sir, I support the letter of censure from your desk to these CSs. I thank you."
}