Entry Instance

HTTP 200 OK
Allow: GET, PUT, PATCH, DELETE, HEAD, OPTIONS
Content-Type: application/json
Vary: Accept

{
    "id": 1588976,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1588976/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 17,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Mr. Elias Mutuma",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "Thank you, Mr. Speaker, Sir, for the opportunity. I am here to do a very brief rejoinder based on the submissions done by the counsel for the County Assembly. I begin by stating that the County Assembly of Isiolo has to a great extent misunderstood our preliminary objection, the extent of that preliminary objection, the nature and the effect of the preliminary objection. I say this because when we started to listen to the responses, all counsel appearing took the position that we were telling this honourable Senate that it has no jurisdiction to entertain this matter. That is not the nature of our preliminary objection. We all agree that there is no court order that can bar or gag this Senate from entertaining a Motion for impeachment of a governor. That one is not in any disagreement. Hon. Senators, our preliminary objection is based on the fact that there is nothing in law that has been brought before you for consideration to invoke your powers under Section 33 of the County Governments Act and Article 181 of the Constitution because for the Senate to sit to discharge that mandate, there has to be a valid Motion of impeachment. Our simple request to this Senate is that there has been no valid or competent Motion that has been forwarded to you to warrant your interrogation of the same. Why? For two reasons. That Motion that has purportedly been brought before you is a Motion that the court had killed before it got to you. So, there is no Motion. Secondly, the law anticipates that you will sit here to listen to a resolution that has been passed by a House constituted under the Standing Orders. Our argument has been simple. The County Assembly of Isiolo did not sit to deliberate on the impeachment of the Governor of Isiolo County. So then, what would you be sitting to listen to? Section 33 of the County Governments Act and Article 181 of the Constitution gives this House powers to hear whether charges against the Governor have been substantiated. So, it presupposes that once you begin the trial, you are actually listening to the actual charges, actual violations, and counts that the Governor is being accused of. Once we cross this bridge, we will not be looking at technicalities. We will only be addressing ourselves to the charges that the Governor is being accused of. Hon. Senators, a month ago, a young man was brutally murdered. The police presented a dead body of that young man, Albert Ojwang’, to Mbagathi Hospital expecting that the hospital was going to admit that dead body and treat that dead body. Mbagathi Hospital stood their ground and said: “Our duty is simple, to treat patients”. What you are bringing here is not a patient known by nature or in medical terms. He is dead not even on arrival, but was dead even before arrival. That is the same thing the County Assembly is doing, bringing you a dead body in the name of a dead Motion and expecting you to invoke your powers under Article 181 and Section 33 of the County Governments Act. We dare submit that it is not even a dead Motion; this Motion is a still birth. It never got to be born. Why? It was never debated and it was never resolved to impeach the Governor of Isiolo County. Hon. Senators, when you look at the arguments by the County Assembly, they are telling you that we need to go to trial to establish whether the HANSARD that we took time to impeach communicate of a House having sat. Now, what witness is being brought 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."
}