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{
    "id": 1492973,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1492973/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 291,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Ruaraka, ODM",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. TJ Kajwang’",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": " Thank you, Hon. Temporary Speaker. I will be very brief on this matter. I do not want to lament because we are reducing this House to lamentations. I do not know whether the senators or the people concerned are watching us. Perhaps, we are talking to ourselves. First of all, I have an issue with the Deputy Leader of Majority Party. He is buttressed by the able Deputy Majority Whip, who is seated on his right. Those are enviable positions and they should not lament. Let those of us in the Backbench lament and spew everything that we want. The leadership should give us solutions. We are now adding you a bad girl in your arsenals. You are leaders and must take your positions seriously. First of all, I wish the Chairperson of the Departmental Committee on Finance and National Planning raised this issue when the substantive Speaker was present. But, that notwithstanding, the Temporary Deputy Speaker will take the role of giving us a reasonable response. This is a very big issue that is touching on constitutional law and inter-relationship between the two Houses. We need a more diplomatic approach. Probably, we should think of having ranking Hon. Members of both Houses advising the two Speakers. An issue that we had in the last Parliament was the discord which was apparent between the leadership of the Senate and the National Assembly. It was very difficult to handle even a simple issue, such as which Bill should go to which House. Yet, the Constitution is very clear on how this should be handled. I think we need a committee of ranking Hon. Members to advise the Speaker of the National Assembly and the Speaker of the Senate who was once in this House and knows it inside out. We should come up with a common position that we need to help devolution and Parliament, to stand on its own. We need to come with some bicameral rules on how the cabinet secretaries or the Executive should interface with the Senate and the National Assembly. When you think about it, who helps cabinet secretaries to process issues in the Senate? It is the Clerk of the Senate. He is the one who processes the committee meetings, gives venues and processes summons. If there was political goodwill, he would respectfully tell the senators that a certain matter is not within the purview of the Senate and is in the domain of the National Assembly. So, if you think about it, this goes beyond the membership of the Houses. It is also an institutional problem of Parliament because the Clerk of the Senate seems to be antagonistic or ambivalent to the Clerk of the National Assembly. You can think that these are two different institutions. This is one Parliament which is in two different Houses. So, before we reconcile Members, first of all, let us reconcile the institutional arrangement. I am a member of a Mediation Committee which never took place concerning the Mung Beans Bill. This was a money Bill that was processed through the Senate. I wonder how it landed on the Floor of the Senate and yet, it was processed by the Clerk of the Senate. The Clerks of the two Houses approve Bills. If I were to bring a Bill which is not within the purview of the National Assembly, the Clerk will turn it down. In fact, not him, but the staff will politely tell me that this cannot be handled here because the Constitution or the law refuses. In that Mediation Committee, first of all, I sought to summon the Clerk of the Senate on why that Bill was processed in the Senate. That was the end of that Mediation Committee. I have never been asked to attend a meeting because the Clerks of the two Houses are the ones 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."
}