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"speaker_name": "Mr. Mungatana",
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"content": "Thank you, Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir and hon. Shebesh. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I want to raise an objection to the manner in which the Minister in charge of the Constitution has presented this Constitutional Bill before this House. The Minister is guilty of mixing fundamental issues in a manner that will deny this House an opportunity to focus and debate the issues that are arising from the Bill that is supposed to be presented for First Reading today. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, Article 89 on the delimitation of electoral units is a very fundamental issue. It is a deep constitutional issue and the amendment that has been sought has been brought here by way of a Question. The Minister has admitted that it is an issue that needs debate and clear understanding. The issue of allocation of party lists, Article 97 about the Membership of the National Assembly and Article 98 on the Membership of the Senate all deal with the question of whether or not, and how to balance the genders within these Houses. Again, that is a fundamental issue that the Minister should not have put together with other issues in an omnibus. Finally, there is Article 101 on the election date where the Minister is seeking to change the election from the second Tuesday in August, to the third Monday in December, together with the consequential amendments. Again, this is a fundamental issue that I argue cannot be brought as an omnibus before this House. The Minister has failed to distinguish between a constitutional Bill and an ordinary Bill that comes in a manner that he wished to present here. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, if you look at ordinary Bills that come here, for example, the Finance Bill and the other Miscellaneous Bills that are brought by the Attorney-General, that is where we have miscellaneous amendments being put together and those are ordinary pieces of legislation. I have looked at the history of the constitutional change in this country, right from 1966 during the tenure of the late Tom Mboya, Minister for Constitutional Affairs, to the tenure of the former Minister for Constitutional Affairs, Mr. Charles Njonjo and even during the tenure of the former retired Attorney-General hon. Amos Wako; at all times, whenever they brought issues that dealt with the Constitution in this House, they would focus on a particular issue and allow the House and the country to mull over those issues and debate them until we reach a complete understanding; either to negative or accept those issues. However, the way the Minister has framed this, it is taking this House for granted. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, even the fact that a constitutional Bill requires a special majority makes it clear that he cannot bring an omnibus amendment to this House in a manner that will sort of show that the Government is taking this House for granted. This again shows that the Government indeed, wants to put the Members of this House and, indeed, Parliament in a dilemma. If the Member for Garsen, for example, and the people I represent would want to support the issue of women but do not want to change the election date, how would I vote for the constitutional Bill presented the way the Government has crafted it? Does the Government want to use the carrot and stick in this manner? Does the Government want to have lack of goodwill, in fact, as they debate these fundamental issues that affect this country? Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I wish to state that even the Judiciary, when it is dealing with constitutional issues, there is a special constitutional court. It is not an ordinary matter. The Minister knows, since he is a senior counsel, that he cannot do what he wants to do in the manner that he wants to do it. I do not need to remind the Minister that the Constitution is the Supreme Law of this land. We went through so much to try and make the Constitution the way it is today. The Minister is aware that even to change a comma, the country would need to know the architecture of the way we live is being changed by a comma. We cannot achieve this if we put an omnibus proposal of miscellaneous amendments in the Bill. This is a Constitutional Bill."
}