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{
    "id": 1374209,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1374209/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 290,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Veronica Maina",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "governance issues. Any healthy society or community that works well must have a mechanism of resolving disputes on a daily basis. That includes the marriage institution. I join my colleagues in congratulating the teams that burnt the midnight oil to ensure that we have a report of the dialogue team that was set. One of the issues they dealt with was the cost of living; an issue that has been thorny and used to incite people to go for maandamano and walking on the streets. Happily, as soon as the dialogue team was convened, the maandamano were paused, the sufurias story eased off and farmers had an opportunity to go to the farms. Using the fertiliser programme that was being supported by the Government, they generated more food. That is how a country should move. One of the things I have noted is that there are recommendations that were made on the Judiciary. One of them is that the Judicial Service Commission (JSC) should make legislative proposals on how judges should be disciplined. As we look at the implementation of this report, I believe one of the proposals that have been put is that the principals should consider setting another committee - I do not know whether it will be called the NADCO or NADCO Phase two - to ensure that recommendations that are set in this report are implemented to the fullest, so that when public resources are utilized in a process, the public gets the benefit of the process. Obviously, to join my colleagues who have put a reservation on the issue of women having been left out, it was shocking to see that. The issue of two-thirds gender rule should have been dealt with outside that process. I urge the leadership of this House, having understood how important it is to take care of over 50 per cent of the population in Kenya, to find an avenue to reintroduce that important issue when amendments are proposed. If we strictly look at the way Parliament is constituted today, I am sure if there was another finding from the court, we will be in the same position where Justice Maraga left us. He made a determination that without the two-thirds gender principle being observed, Parliament was not properly constituted. I know in their wisdom, the leadership of this House and that of the National Assembly will find a way of bringing back that important issue that cannot be delegated to the periphery because we are now staring at an opportunity of having a bipartisan approach to amend the Constitution. It will be less acrimonious, more fruitful and objective using this platform to deal with certain gaps that are in our Constitution which have been difficult to address because of the contestations that arise every time a constitutional amendment is mentioned. As I support this Report, I commend the team that dealt with it. I urge Members of the Committee to bring back the issue of women. We have many of our daughters and sisters in school right now. We have women who are going through all manner of training who are equally qualified to serve in many offices both in the public and private sector. We would be sending a wrong message to women that we have excluded them from the conversation that is so important for our nation and show them that we have not adequately catered for their needs to be included and mainstreamed within the main processes of our nation."
}