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{
    "id": 1425330,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1425330/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 267,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Orwoba",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "concurrence from the Senate, which wanted to participate in certain issues. However, the National Assembly took the Bill to be assented into law. Another example is the Statute Law (Miscellaneous Amendment No.2) Bill (National Assembly Bill No.68 of 2023) sponsored by the National Assembly Majority Leader. This Bill was assented into law without the participation and concurrence of the Senate. The Senate is the ‘Upper’ House. I find it difficult to understand how then a proposed Bill from the National Assembly by a National Assembly legislator can be brought to this House to try and correct the wrongdoings that the National Assembly is participating in. In this same data, no Bills have come from the Senate that have not sought concurrence in the National Assembly and have been assented to law. The bad behaviour is coming from the National Assembly. In the last Parliament, 73 Bills signed into law by the President were repealed because someone went to court and took the court through the process of a Bill passing into law. This meant that there should be concurrence from the Senate. The courts repealed 73 Acts because they did not go through that procedure or come to the Senate. The National Assembly was asked to sit with the Senate and regularize those 73 Acts. In their usual manner, the National Assembly did not want to come and sit with the Senate to regularize, follow the procedure and have those Acts properly passed into law. Instead, they returned to the Supreme Court to appeal and argue that the 73 Acts should remain law. They simply did not want to sit with the Senate. At that point, since the President had already signed the 73 Bills into law, it was an embarrassment to the Republic of Kenya, showing how disorganized we are, as a Parliament. In an aim to save face, the Supreme Court ruled by giving a timeline for the Senate and the National Assembly to sit down and fix what needed to be fixed. To date, nothing has happened. This should tell you that the Senate is not the aggressor or the people going out of their way to do the wrong things. As a matter of fact, I will give you an example of what happens. I am glad that I got this opportunity. Of the six Bills that I have tabled, one of the Bills I have is the Whistleblower Protection Bill, which I inherited from a previous Senator who had been pushing this Bill through the Committee on JLAC. We fine-tuned the Bill to fit what is happening currently in the country. I went through the African Parliamentarians Network Against Corruption (APNAC) caucus, where I sit and passed it through the JLAC. The committee said the Bill is proper and should proceed in the House procedure. If you look at the summary of the Bills from the Senate that are going through concurrency in the National Assembly, the Whistleblower Protection Bill is one of the Bills that is waiting for the National Assembly to state that the Bill is not a Money Bill, drafted constitutionally and I can go ahead with other procedures. As I await, if you look at the summary I have, it is a public document of the legislative agenda for both Houses. As I wait for my Bill on Whistleblower Protection to be approved and get concurrence from the National Assembly to continue, I will draw your attention to a Bill by Hon. Irene Kasalu, a Member of Parliament in the National Assembly. She has a Bill"
}