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{
"id": 1399601,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1399601/?format=api",
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"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Sen. Cheruiyot",
"speaker_title": "The Senate Majority Leader",
"speaker": {
"id": 13165,
"legal_name": "Aaron Kipkirui Cheruiyot",
"slug": "aaron-cheruiyot"
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"content": "As I listened through the presentation, there were very useful insights that came from our colleagues together with yours, Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, being the Chair of the Committee. I have had the opportunity to read through what you have proposed as the Standing Committee on Justice and Legal Affairs (JLAC). There are various amendments but, curiously, as Sen. Olekina says, it is something I want to encourage every Chairperson of a Committee. This is a trick we have used as a House over the years, which, unfortunately, some of our chairpersons have yet to appreciate, and this is something you need to do. There is the story of the camel and the tent. The camel only asked to have its head shelter because of the sweltering heat of the desert. Before long, the whole body was inside the tent, pushing in slowly. This is the policy we adopted as a Senate a long time ago. Each time we have legislation before us, anything that states \"National Assembly does this\" is replaced by “Parliament.” I do not know why Committee Chairpersons, the Legal Services Directorate staff, and the committee clerks forget this golden rule. This is something we have done over the years. It will take time for the organs and instruments of the Government to appreciate that we are a bicameral Parliament. It has been 14 years or 12 years, suppose you remove the two years before the election of 2012, since the Constitution was promulgated. In that case, it is now 12 years into a bicameral system of Parliament, yet, when you get Bills, so long as they have come from the Government Printer and the Office of the Attorney General, then 90 per cent of the time, even on matters that the Constitution has specified that it is something that Parliament will handle, chances are they will write that it is a National Assembly. Sometimes, I do not know whether it is mischief on their part or lazy drafting. I believe this is an effort of copy pasting. You know how people worked in this country long before the days of Chat GPT. Copy and paste was a way of doing the assignment and carrying out your responsibility. Therefore, the drafters who handle many of the Bills from outside the precincts of Parliament would simply copy any provisions. Where there is the word “Parliament,” they are likely to write “National Assembly.” Many have yet to appreciate that those two names are no longer synonymous, as they were before 2010, and are distinctively different. I encourage the drafters of the Bills, Members of various committees, the Chairpersons and Members of staff who work with our committees that so long as it is not a Constitutional provision and this will only be limited to Money Bills – even though we will get to eventually. If it is being stated that “the National Assembly Committee” responsible for this as Sen. Olekina pointed out, the obvious amendment I expected was deleting that clause and inserting the word “Parliament.” This makes it plain and simple. People appreciate the Senate and move away from this. Sen. Crystal Asige mentioned something that I totally agree with regarding the overall objective of this Bill. It is not for want of good laws that we continue to struggle with the challenge of corruption and conflict of interest. We have a values problem, which is the challenge."
}