Entry Instance

HTTP 200 OK
Allow: GET, PUT, PATCH, DELETE, HEAD, OPTIONS
Content-Type: application/json
Vary: Accept

{
    "id": 1334482,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1334482/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 395,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Suba North, ODM",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Millie Odhiambo-Mabona",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": " Thank you, Hon. Temporary Speaker, for giving me this opportunity. I wish to support the Statute Law (Miscellaneous Amendments) Bill with proposed amendments. I wish to also give an indication that I agree with the Chairperson of the Departmental Committee on Justice and Legal Affairs that miscellaneous amendment Bills are not supposed to deal with substantive issues. However, I disagree with him that this Bill is not dealing with substantive issues. Actually, there are substantive issues that are being dealt with in this Bill. I want to encourage that in future – as I have said countless times before – when we are dealing with a miscellaneous amendments Bill, it should not touch on substantive issues. I have looked at this Bill and I have counted about 16 pieces of legislation that are being amended. The Chairman of the JLAC has indicated to us that their Committee did public participation yesterday. He has encouraged Members of this House to look at the reports of the JLAC. I am sure that the JLAC did not deal with the 16 pieces of legislation, because not all of them are related to justice and they are quite a number. For instance, the Civil Aviation Act, the Value Added Tax Act, the Privatisation Act, the Public Finance Management Act, the Universities Act amongst others. So, these legislations went to the various relevant committees. You can now imagine reading all those Reports and yet – if the practice of this House is anything to go by – the likelihood of this Bill going to the Committee of the whole House stage tomorrow is very high. That is the reason we are very amenable to suits in court. Earlier today, I said it to the Speaker – and I will repeat – that the other side has the majority of the Members so I do not understand where we are rushing to. It is basically the same way we rush to get loans all over and then say that we are broke. I think we need to be very serious about the way we are dealing with issues as a country. There are some minor amendments which I have no problem with, including the proposed amendment to the Sexual Offences Act that is situating the registry at a different place. How I wish that – now that we are bringing substantive amendments through this Bill – we brought a more substantive amendment that is thornier on the issue of the Sexual Offences Act, where minors engage in sex with minors. I have no problem with the proposed amendment to the Trustees Perpetual Succession Act. However, in that amendment, they would have also brought an amendment on how you change trustees when they leave or when they retire. That is still problematic. On the issue of Utamaduni Day, I was very keen to listen to both the Mover and the Seconder to see the reason why we want to remove the Utamaduni Day other than the fact that it is aligned to the late President Moi and we may not have liked him for whatever reason. For me, I have no problem with the late President Moi. I do not understand why we want to remove Utamaduni Day and yet we create impromptu environmental days or tree planting holidays. 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"
}