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"content": "whereas the Constitution is clear, he is elected by the whole country. He has no area to protect. Under the old Constitution, the President had to be elected from a constituency. A Vice President had to be elected from a constituency as a Member of Parliament. This Constitution has no similar provisions. When you come to the functions of the Deputy President and I think this is extremely important in the kind of relationship that there should be between the President and the Deputy President, it says so in the following words, which I need to read for clarity in terms of the Deputy President. They are found in Article 147. It says: “The Deputy President shall be the principal assistant of the President and shall deputise for the President in the execution of the President's functions.” He may be assigned duties by the President. The kind of symbiotic relationship that should exist between the President and the Deputy President is underlined in this Constitution. Now, this is the main issue that I want to deal with in some detail. It is uncontestable from the record that you have, even from the Deputy President, that the words he is accused of having uttered, where he alleges that Kenya is like a company existing of shareholders, does not sit in the Constitution of the Republic of Kenya. Kenya is not a Republic that is established on the basis of shareholding. It is a Republic of citizens. So, when a Deputy President talks about taking the interests of watu wa Murima or whatever that would mean, it is not in compliance with his constitutional remit. The words are there. What he has said in public on this issue is very clear. The second issue is on the question of collective responsibility. You would find out from this Constitution that in nearly all the important constitutional bodies established under the Constitution, the Deputy President is a member of those particular institutions or organs, like the National Security Council. One would wonder why even the issue of the Director General (DG) of the National Intelligence Service (NIS) would be discussed in a public forum, yet the Deputy President is the second in command in the National Security Council (NSC) as established under the Constitution. I plead with the Senate to look at the utterances of the Deputy President vis- a -vis his role under the Constitution. He has even said that where he has stated certain things that are deemed to be inciteful, that is protected speech. It cannot be protected speech under our Constitution. Because of what we have undergone as a nation, Article 33(2) of the Constitution has a limitation that expressions that extend to propaganda for war, incitement to violence, hate speech, advocacy of hatred cannot be protected speech. There is another important point which I want to put before the Senate. Sometime in February, 2017, the Deputy President travelled to London. He went to a hospital in London where his brother had been admitted and was in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU). When he arrived, the next day, he prevailed upon his brother to execute a will. That was on 17th February, 2017. In that trip, there is no evidence at all that he tried to talk to The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Director, Hansard and AudioServices, Senate."
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