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{
    "id": 1522373,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1522373/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 149,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Ugenya, MDG",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. David Ochieng’",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 2955,
        "legal_name": "David Ouma Ochieng'",
        "slug": "david-ouma-ochieng"
    },
    "content": " Thank you so much, Hon. Speaker. The issue we are dealing with, for me, is both structural and legal. At times, it has been fuelled by the courts. I have said here and I want to repeat that in the USA, for over 20 years now, there has not been a single time when the courts agreed to preside over any matter presented before them by either the House of Representatives against the Senate or vice versa. Every time the courts have been asked to preside over any matter between these two Houses, they have refused. That, it is their matter and they should deal with it. In 2013, when the first Senate in the 2010 Constitution was inaugurated, many people ran for the senatorial position only to come to the Senate to realise that is not what they wanted to do. That is the reason we see most of the Senators running for gubernatorial seats. People who run for Senate seat do not understand the role of the Senate. That is the reason why Senators are voted and after two or three years, they want to either do the National Assembly’s work or be governors. So, we need to do civic education so that those who run for the Senate know what they are going into. When they come to the Senate and realise that it is only dealing with matters of the counties and not the whole country, they should not be shocked. We have issues on the role of the Senate that causes problems whenever Senators come and realise that their job is limited to counties. I am impressed by the way you have handled the issue of Senate since you became the Speaker. You have tried to steer this House towards the direction of not bashing the Senate. Let us not talk to them as if they are not our brothers. However, at some point in time, you will have to put your foot down and say this is where we draw the line. We will not allow the Senate to keep on belittling this House every time in their chambers. It is insulting. We cannot have the Senate bashing the National Assembly every single week as if there is something wrong we have done to them. I want to request you to sit down with your colleague on the other side so that we can have some decorum. Let us have a way of dealing with each other. We are all adults working within the law. It cannot go on ad infinitum. You appointed me twice to the Mediation Committee and whenever we went there, we dealt with very mundane issues of ego, who is big and who is small, and not the law. Unless that is sorted out through a constitutional amendment, this matter will depend on you, as our Speaker, to guide us. However, I want to implore upon Senators to know their limits and what the law says about the Senate so that we do not get into confusion every now and then. I beg to support."
}