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{
    "id": 186327,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/186327/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 235,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Mr. Thuo",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 144,
        "legal_name": "George Thuo",
        "slug": "george-thuo"
    },
    "content": "Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, I will proceed as if I was not interrupted. Over the last more than one decade, Kenyans have been promised a new Constitution. I wish to agree with hon. Namwamba and others who have spoken, and say that maybe this is our unique opportunity, as a Parliament, to deliver what has proved extremely difficult for this country. We have just gone through a very traumatic experience in the months of December, January, February and March. It would be a shame if we failed to deliver on our promise of a new Constitution, particularly given those who have lost lives and others who have been displaced. This is because the future of Kenya is definitely dependent on the writing and presentation to the people of Kenya of a new Constitution. Even our ideals of a developed or middle-income economy by the year 2030, I submit, cannot be achieved without laying the foundation and basis on the back of a new Constitution. Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, I am very pleased with what has been presented. But I must say that it is clear that we shall not achieve our stated objectives of delivering this Constitution within 12 months. Even looking at what is before us with this new Bill and the steps necessary in order for us to get a new Constitution, it is clear that we will have to work very hard and burn the midnight oil. We will also need to have a lot of goodwill and consensus building in order to achieve what it is that we seek to achieve. Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, I am not a lawyer, but I have gone through this Bill and I have a couple of issues that I would like the Minister to probably address. If I seem to have 2418 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES August 6, 2008 misunderstood the issues, then I will be quite happy to be suitably informed. On Part IV on the Report of the Committee of Experts thereon, under Clause 29(5), it says: \"Where the National Assembly submits the draft Constitution to the Committee of Experts for consideration and redrafting under Section 4B, the Committee of Experts shall within seven days of the receipt of the Constitution consider the proposed amendments and submit the draft Constitution to the National Assembly.\" Under Clause 29(6) it goes on to say: \"The National Assembly shall approve the draft Constitution and shall within 14 days---\" It seems to me under this Clause that the Committee of Experts is really being placed above the National Assembly in terms of its ability to make decisions and amendments. This is because where the National Assembly may and chooses to make amendments, the Committee may only consider and not necessarily amend it. But once it presents the draft to the House, the House shall approve. It presupposes - and I assume that I am right on this - that the National Assembly at that point is duty-bound to actually pass it as it is. So, there I am a bit uncomfortable. The other area is Part VIII, Clause 55(1), which says: \"If the final result of the referendum is that the people of Kenya have ratified the draft Constitution; the Committee of Experts shall stand dissolved forty-five days after the day the President proclaims the new Constitution to be law and this Act shall thereupon lapse.\" I do not see anywhere where the President is mandated to do so, within a few days or a certain timeline. If the President chooses not to proclaim the new Constitution to be law in the next couple of years, then the Committee of experts remains in place and continues to draw money from public funds, while awaiting the proclamation of the President. I would have thought that we would put a timeline to this to ensure that we do not keep in abeyance a committee that continues to draw from public funds. Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, with those few remarks, I beg to support."
}