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{
    "id": 1549200,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1549200/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 1126,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Mungatana, MGH",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "Kenyans listening to me, the law under the Constitution makes only Parliaments or the assemblies of the people, in this case the Senate and the National Assembly, and at the county level, the county assemblies, as the only bodies that are given power to make law. However, it is not possible to make a law on all the details. That is why we, as the Senate, the National Assembly and the county assemblies, delegate these responsibilities to Ministers, so that they can sit with their technical committees and say that they need certain regulations, so that they can make the law functional. For example, we may pass a law here that says over speeding is an offence under the Traffic Act, but then it will need the relevant Cabinet Secretary to sit with the National Transport and Safety Authority (NTSA) to say between which areas it is safe to, say, 50 kilometres per hour as the speed limit, and between which areas it is safe to drive at the speed of 120 kilometres per hour. Those kinds of details are not available before the House or the houses making law. That is why we delegate this power to the regulation-making authorities like Cabinet Secretaries and other authorities. However, we have had serious abuse of this delegated power. For the many legislations that we have passed here, we have said in the end that this law will come into effect when the Cabinet Secretary signs this and that, or when they bring the enabling regulations and these regulations are passed. Then, you find that a very serious piece of legislation is not made actionable because the Cabinet Secretary forgets about that law. The Senate or the National Assembly has originated the law and then it has passed through the processes, and then it has gone to the last process where the President has assented and it has become law. Then a Cabinet Secretary who is in charge of that department sees that law, refuses to put those regulations and the law becomes non- functional."
}