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{
    "id": 1372056,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1372056/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 101,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Wambua",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13199,
        "legal_name": "Enoch Kiio Wambua",
        "slug": "enoch-kiio-wambua"
    },
    "content": "Thank you, Mr. Speaker, Sir. From the onset, I am in support of the Motion but I just want to advance the argument put forward by Sen. Mungatana, my neighbour from Tana River. Mr. Speaker, Sir, on the matter of this President’s Address to Parliament, it is not a matter of just ticking boxes. I want to educate the Senator for Kakamega who is the Majority Whip, so that he may stop thinking about sufuria’s and put his mind on more important things like the Address of the President. The President’s Address is a very important thing. Sen. (Dr.) Khalwale and the House, when you look at Article 132 that Sen. Oketch Gicheru is referring to on the functions of the President, you will realise that, in fact, the first function of the President is to address Parliament. It is a serious thing. It is not a small matter. I think that draws from Chapter One of the Constitution on Sovereignty of the People which says- “The sovereign power under this Constitution is delegated to the following State organs which shall perform their functions in accordance with this Constitution” - The first State organ there is Parliament. Mr. Speaker, Sir, the President’s Address to Parliament is not a matter that we are just going to limit to 15 or 30 minutes, or three days. We need to take it a little bit more seriously. How do we do this? Since the President will address Parliament in this Session, we must find a way of getting the President to sit in Parliament at the time of giving the speech and during the time of debate on his speech. Since we are a bicameral Parliament, we do not want the President to be shuttling between the Senate and the National Assembly. Since the address itself is being done jointly, then I will propose and then the technical team should advise us. Why can we not have a situation where, as the President addresses the joint sitting of Parliament, he sits in that joint sitting for the three consecutive days to follow debate by both houses of Parliament?"
}