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{
    "id": 1494996,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1494996/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 122,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. (Dr.) Oburu",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 194,
        "legal_name": "Oburu Ngona Odinga",
        "slug": "oburu-odinga"
    },
    "content": "Thank you, Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, for the opportunity. I first take this opportunity to congratulate you for being very insightful and foresighted in bringing this Bill. I am a veteran in this Parliament; I have been in this Parliament for over 30 years. I can tell you that there was one time when this Parliament was fully dependent on the Office of the President (OP). Our budget was done through the OP. We were fully dependent on them and the Treasury. The oversight role that we were supposed to play was done through by sometimes blackmailing the Treasury in order for them to release some money for us. We would refuse to approve the budget and put all sorts of pressure on the executive, yet we were supposed to be oversighting them, but they used that budget because they held the purse. Those who hold the strings of the purse call the shots. They used it to make sure that their agenda went through. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, at that time, we were not supposed to oversight the budget. The budget would be banged on us and we could not scrutinize those huge documents. One of my former Members of Parliament (MPs), hon. Oloo Aringo, who is now late and is still lying in state, did a great job for this country and there were many others who supported him. We all supported him and he did a lot of insightful research and came up with proposals on the way forward. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, at that time, there was a lot of resistance from the executive. It took a long time of struggle. It was not one person, but the whole Parliament. We were fighting to get our space. We then managed to get a budget 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."
}