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{
    "id": 1368842,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1368842/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 21,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Ugunja, ODM",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Opiyo Wandayi",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": " Hon. Speaker, I seek clarification regarding the Message you have just read. The Standing Orders allow Members of this House to address the Speaker on matters to do with the constitutionality of any business that comes before the House. I have listened keenly to your Message and you have referred the House to Article 240(8) of the Constitution, which allows the National Security Council, with the approval of the House, to second or deploy security forces outside the country. I am at a loss as to whether the definition of security forces under that Article of the Constitution applies to the National Police Service. I recall the aim of the Constitution of Kenya, 2010 to reform our national police force into a service. The Constitution does not view the National Police Service as a force. Therefore, I submit that that Message is misdirected in the sense that we do not have the capacity as a House to authorise or purport to authorise the National Police Service, which is not a security force as contemplated under the Constitution. I plead with you to reconsider that Message before the relevant Committee is seized of the matter, and come back with a considered ruling because it is of immense public interest. This House can only act in accordance with the Constitution. We cannot at any given moment veer off the constitutional path. Hon. Speaker, I plead with you that in spite of the apparent urgency of this deployment, retreat and come up with a considered judgement or ruling on this matter. We will set a very dangerous precedent as a House if, in the fullness of time, we are found to have acted ultravires the Constitution."
}