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{
    "id": 1392724,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1392724/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 636,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Tharaka, UDA",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. George Murugara",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": " Thank you very much, Hon. Temporary Speaker. Hon. Temporary Speaker, I beg to second the Second Reading of the National Government Administration Laws (Amendment) Bill (National Assembly Bill No.73 of 2023). I fully associate myself with the observations and debate by the Leader of the Majority Party when moving the Bill. To start with, it is important that Hon. Members of this House get hold of the Committee Reports. The Reports by the Departmental Committee on Justice and Legal Affairs are two: the main report and an addendum. It is important for Members to get these reports and read them so that they understand exactly how the Committee reasoned before it came to the decisions it made. It is also important to point out that there is even a dissent by Hon. Otiende Amollo. Whoever is keen can look at it. It is important that this is debated in both ways. These laws are especially very important because they touch on security and administration of our country. We did not have problems with the Assumption of the Office of the President Act. We agreed to most of this apart from observing that we had difficulties with the Office of the National Security Adviser, which does not exist but it was to be formed under this law. We agreed to increase the number of persons to represent the President-elect to six. When it came to the amendment of Section 2 of the National Security Council Act to introduce the National Security Council Committee, we had difficulties because it was actually being introduced by Section 5 of the proposed amendment. The problem we had was about the constitutionality of the proposed committee. It is supposed to be a committee of the NSC but we were legislating that members who are not members of the NSC sit in the committee. The net effect would be introducing new members who are not members of the NSC to sit there and make security decisions. One such person is the National Security Advisor. Sub clause 3 seeks to make the secretary to the NSC to become the secretary of the committee. That may be the case in reality but that office is not constitutional. We rejected the whole of Clause 5 and went to Clause 7, which again we were not able to approve because we could not find the constitutionality of the office. That is why it is proposed that if we are to create the office, we may have to look at other laws including the National Administrative Laws. From there, we went to Section 28 on the Office of the Attorney General’s Office in which it was proposed that the National Seal be removed from there and kept by the Head of Public Service. Unfortunately, it was agreed unanimously that the custodian of all the legal instruments of the country is the Attorney-General. Therefore, it would be improper and unwise to move the National Seal. There may exist other seals in the country, including the Presidential Seal. We do not have a problem with them being held by other persons in accordance with whatever law. However, when it comes to the Republic Seal, this, like all the laws of the country, must be kept by the custodian of those laws. From there, we went to the National Government Coordination Act 2013. This is where the Office of the Chief Administrative Secretary (CAS) is proposed. We made proposals to this 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"
}