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{
    "id": 152208,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/152208/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 466,
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    "speaker": null,
    "content": "Boundaries Commission. There are some genuine amendments that are required and we think that this has been hurried. Still speaking on the same issue of remuneration of Constitutional Office holders, Cap. 423, I wanted to make the point that precedent has been set now for every person, who holds a Constitutional office, or an important or significant office, to have a report of a tribunal that is put before to this House for debate. At least, in the eyes of the public, it should appear to be properly debated and accepted, so that members of the public can be aware of how much the Attorney-General and the other Constitutional officers holders are paid, and whether, in fact, this Parliament should pass proposed amendments. I still stand by my proposal to the Attorney-General. In order for us not to lose on the other important things, we would request him to seriously consider putting this particular amendment aside so that the country can talk about them, accept them and then pass them at another time after we have set up a salaries board. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I wanted to also very quickly bring to the attention of the House the proposed amendment to the Media Act, No.3 of 2007. The proposal from the Attorney-General is that the Bill is to amend the Media Act, 2007, to provide for the funding of the Media Council by the Treasury. We have had a lot of talk about independence of the media. I think this is a profession just like the Law Society of Kenya (LSK). The LSK does not get any funding from the State, and where there is State funding, there has to be heavy presence of the State in the board or council, as the case might be. It is not acceptable that on one hand we are fighting for independence and on the other hand we are saying that we need the money from the public to support this independence. I want us to look at it more clearly. Are we going to give money to the Media Council? If the Media Council is going to be given money from the Treasury, then apart from the private component, what is the Government component in that Media Council? We need to agree on this. If it is in the middle then, the Attorney-General has forgotten to bring some other amendments for us to discuss. How is this Council going to be created? What is the composition of the public interest in it? What is the Government component in it? Who is going to sit there? So long as money is given from the Treasury, there has to be that bitter pill to swallow. So, I think something is missing here that needs more discussion. I would want to particularly support the amendment to the Interpretation and General Provisions Act that has been brought in. The example was given of the conflict between the Ministry of Medical Services and the Ministry of Public Health and Sanitation, where you will find the Director of Medical Services is supposed to administer the Act, yet the actual boss in practice of those public health officers is the Director of Public Health, who has been appointed but there is no provision for his appointment within the Act. I think that is a good provision, so that we can remove the confusion that is in existence right now. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, the other one that I had hoped would be used by the Chief Justice to really make Kenyans enjoy its benefit is the provision that Mr. M. Kilonzo has delved into regarding introduction of new technology. I watched with amazement the way the presidential constitutional cases were disposed of when Mr. Al Gore and Mr. Bush were fighting over who was supposed to be the president of the USA. You will find very big cases being debated; senior counsel are told they have ten minutes to present their case. They put on the microphones like we do and there is a red light like"
}