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"content": "courts, lower courts and the courts of appeal in this country, where there is appellate jurisdiction. Perhaps, a Member is dissatisfied with the ruling of the Chair. Perhaps, the Chair is asked to make a ruling on a previous ruling and that happened once. I did fear that this House almost suffered a procedural meltdown. Perhaps, it is an issue that we need to apply our minds to because there will come a time when, perhaps, we have a Speaker who comes from one party and the Deputy Speaker from another party. Perhaps, issues will come where rulings might be made and some rulings could be overruled. I think it is very important that there should be a provision--- I was proposing Part 1 of the Standing Orders--- Where there are procedural matters Standing Orders do not provide for the 3948 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES December 9, 2008 procedure, then the Speaker will have to make a ruling or a decision. There will be times when the Speaker is away and there will be times when there will be a Temporary Deputy Speaker and a ruling is made and, perhaps, a Member is dissatisfied. I think we need a provision whereby, like in the High Court, there can be appellate jurisdiction where when one is dissatisfied with the ruling of the High Court, he can appeal to the Court of Appeal. I think it is a matter that we might need to address as we go along. Mr. Speaker, Sir, we are very pleased with the new proposals, particularly on the creation of new Committees. Going by the performance of the previous House, particularly the Ninth Parliament, there were great Motions that went through. There were great ideas that came and were passed. I came across, while going through the proceedings of the Ninth Parliament, a Motion that was moved by Mr. Jimmy Angwenyi. It was about the creation of employment for the youth of this country. He called it \"The New Deal\". He addressed the plight of the youth of this country. That Motion received unanimous support and it went through. But nothing has been done about that Motion. There was also a Motion that went through about the Early Childhood Education Development (ECD). There were other great Motions that came and were passed. But there has been lack of follow up in terms of implementation. Therefore, when we have a Committee that will particularly look into the issue of implementation--- I would suggest that it should not only be monitoring and implementation. That Committee should also be called the Evaluation Committee. We should be able to evaluate our performance. It is a role that is very important. Mr. Speaker, Sir, the other issue is what Mr. Orengo has touched on about creating the Prime Minister's Question time, and creating time for the Leader of Government Business under the proposed Standing Order No.34. Indeed, this is a great development and we must support it. That is bringing the Executive to Parliament, just the way we have taken Parliament to the villages through live coverage. I think, as Members of the Back-Bench, we will be allowed more time to engage the Government directly on the Floor of the House, and that will make the Government more accountable. We want to support it, and I also support what Mr. Musyimi said about the proposed amendment to Standing Order No.34, about giving the Vice-President time to take the hon. Members through the agenda and the proposed business for the succeeding week. Indeed, that is a very important development, and we will also need enough time. After the Prime Minister's Question Time, we should also have time with the Vice-President to know exactly what is coming before the House, and also be able to question certain issues that we will want to. That will give us a great opportunity to engage the Executive. Mr. Speaker, Sir, I have gone through the proposed Standing Orders, and there is the element of strengthening the oversight role of Parliament. It is very important with regard to the issue of the national Budget. If we are able to strengthen our Committees and their role in the Budget-making process and strengthen their oversight roles, it will be something of great value to this country. I do appreciate that we attended a workshop in Washington DC mid this year, and what we went through, in terms of sharing with colleagues from other Parliaments, surprised us, because of how strong the institution of Parliament is in terms of playing the oversight role, particularly, in the Budget-making process. Mr. Speaker, Sir, I believe that we are going to have these new Standing Orders in place. So, if we are empowered as Parliament and Departmental Committees, for example the Committee on Defence and Foreign Relations and other Committees, we will be able to effectively participate and not just be a rubber-stamp. In fact, there are great changes that are coming to this House, and we want to applaud the Committees for what they have done so far. We believe that it will be necessary to bring more reforms in future in terms of changing the Standing Orders of this House. I do believe in the words December 9, 2008 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 3949 of the late President of the United States of America (USA), Mr. J.F. Kennedy, who once said:- \"Conformity is a jailer of freedom and development\". There are things that we inherited from our colonial masters that probably when you go to other jurisdictions you will find that they have made far reaching changes, including changes in the judiciary and parliament, but we still retain what we inherited from the colonialists. Some of the changes that we have seen in other jurisdictions go as far as the dressing code. I am glad that this Parliament has made changes with regard to Lady Members of Parliament. We do hope that in future, we will be able to make further changes, especially in our High Court. I had the privilege of appearing in the Ugandan High Court, and I realised that the culture that was purely English, of wearing wigs and robes, has long been discarded in Uganda, a neighbouring country. Judges are no longer supposed to wear the old English robes. When you go to the Uganda Supreme Court, you will find Ugandan Judges neatly dressed in very beautiful Ugandan robes, with a crested crane, which is the emblem of the nation on the robe. Mr. Speaker, Sir, I believe that at some point we will need to consider that in bringing changes to our High Court and to this House, so that in very warm or hot afternoons, the Speaker or the Judges will not be sweating in the wig. There are changes that can come in future and we must consider them. Mr. Speaker, Sir, we have also made advancement in the area of Information Communication and Technology (ICT). If you go to the Rwandan Parliament, you will find that they are ICT compliant, because they use it. You will find Members of Parliament with laptops and serious changes in ICT. They are far ahead of us in ICT. That is a challenge that we leave to the Standing Orders Committee, but we will need to bring changes to this House. Apart from live coverage we need to catch up with technology, which is quite advanced. We must embrace it in this 21st Century. With those few remarks, I beg to support."
}