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{
"id": 1559990,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1559990/?format=api",
"text_counter": 981,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Suba North, ODM",
"speaker_title": "Hon. Millie Odhiambo-Mabona",
"speaker": null,
"content": " Thank you, Hon. Temporary Speaker. I rise to second the Bill. I thank the Chairperson of the Departmental Committee on Justice and Legal Affairs for tabling it at this time. I know that Hon. Kaluma had brought similar amendments. I hope his proposed amendments have been consolidated into the Bill. I am honoured because I came up with the Treaty-Making and Ratification Act that is now being amended. It is said that the proof of the pudding is in the eating. There has been a lot of “eating” of this Act. It is time we amended it because as you “eat”, you discover gaps. I am glad that the Ministry has seen several gaps that require amendment. I am also happy that the amendment Bill will be coming up shortly after we adopt Kenya’s foreign policy, which touches on fairly similar issues. I know I have previously talked about how I came up with the Act, but I will just repeat what I said on the Floor of the House. I sat in the Select Committee on Constitutional Review – a process which culminated in the promulgation of the current Constitution. Hon. Temporary Speaker, the religious sector, especially the representatives of churches, came out very strongly against Articles 2(6) and (7) of the Constitution, which provide that treaties that are ratified by Kenya shall become part of the laws of Kenya. They were opposed to the idea of giving an individual power to enact laws without involving Members of Parliament, who are the elected representatives of the people. One of the things that I promised the church then was to bring a law that would bring that authority back to Parliament. By introducing the Treaty-Making and Ratification Act, we did exactly that. We sought to give that power back to Parliament. However, one thing became very clear. When you are dealing with international law, once a country ratifies a treaty, it becomes law. During the negotiations between countries, Parliament is not involved. So, when they come to tell us that they are about to ratify, Parliament can only put reservations. It has been a problem whether to reject a treaty entirely or recommend reservations. However, this Bill seeks to get Parliament to be involved in the positions prior to ratification so that when it comes to Parliament, we do not find ourselves in a dilemma. At the same time, it still gives the power to negotiate treaties primarily to the Executive, as it should be. That is the role of the Executive. But since treaties eventually become law, the voice of Parliament must be seen to be heard. I support most of the provisions in this Bill. There were a few gaps because my mind was focused on areas where I have expertise, such as human rights and social justice. My mind was focused on treaties like the Conventions on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, and the Conventions on the Rights of the Child, among others. However, this proposal comes in with economic treaties, which is not my forte, and because of that, we did not put a lot of emphasis. This proposal now brings in the aspect of economic treaties. What I like about the issues included is that they align with what we are talking about in foreign policy and putting the interest of Kenyans first. Hon. Temporary Speaker, the Mover has also mentioned something that is very dear to me on negotiating treaties that may compromise the country’s food security. I would like to request the technocrats that are working in the Ministries not to only look out for words like ‘food security’. Sometimes, the things that compromise food security come in very interesting ways that you might not see. For instance, when I was studying at the University of Nairobi a long time ago, some of the treaties that we got involved in at that time compromised our ability as a country to replant our traditional food varieties. We needed to get authorization from other countries to use our own traditional varieties. There are areas where you cannot easily get the new varieties. Therefore, by doing that, you end up making our country slaves in terms of food varieties. I used to visit my grandmother when I was a little girl, and she had a little mud-walled and grass-thatched kitchen. She always had maize hanging on the roof, and I had no clue why. I was told that was how they stocked seed varieties. If you visit any homestead nowadays, there 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."
}