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"id": 188310,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/188310/?format=api",
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"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Ms. A. Abdalla",
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"speaker": {
"id": 382,
"legal_name": "Amina Ali Abdalla",
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"content": "Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, I beg to move the following Motion:- THAT, this House do grant leave to introduce a Bill for an Act of Parliament to amend Section 45(B) of the Constitution of Kenya to provide for gender parity, regional balance and the inclusion of persons other than Members of Parliament in the Parliamentary Service Commission and for matters incidental thereto and connected therewith. Section 45B of the Constitution establishes the Parliamentary Service Commission. It determines the membership, which includes the Speaker, the Leader of Government Business, the Leader of the Official Opposition, four members from the party that is governing and three members from the Opposition. Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, the reason why I have proposed that amendment for the inclusions, in the Commission, of persons other than hon. Members is with regard to the fact that hon. Members were jittery of the fact that I was establishing a PSC composed purely of non- members of Parliament. I am proposing the inclusion of moderators in the PSC, so that we can deal with the public image problem that the PSC, and Parliament as an institution, is suffering from. Madam Temporary Deputy, Speaker, the amendment to Section 45B is one of the most important contributions to parliamentary democracy that has ever been made by this House. In fact, I wish to pay tribute to the hon. Members of the Eighth Parliament, who went through the entire Motion of having a Private Members Motion to introduce amendments, so that we could be delinked from the public service, and so that Parliament could be an institution that consolidates its dignity, independence and supremacy. In that light I wish to mention the likes of hon. Oloo-Aringo who spent a lot of energy to ensure that we not only entrenched the Parliamentary Service Commission in the Constitution but also passed the Parliamentary Service Act, which is the organic law that seeks to provide for the implementation framework of Section 45A and B of our Constitution. Parliament has come a long way from the days in 1969 when the late hon. Seroney had passed in this House a Motion that hon. Members no longer needed to go to the Office of the President to be paid, where the clerks were mistreating them. We have come a long way. That does not mean that we do not have more steps to take to improve the situation in our Parliament. Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, before the entrenchment of the PSC in the Constitution, and the subsequent passing of the PSC Act, the Executive was so strong that it had July 23, 2008 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 2041 completely emasculated the independence of Parliament in such a way that as a Parliament we could not make any move without the Executive making the decision to support that move. The situation is much more different now, in that the PSC has already got back constitutional support that it requires, and no longer has to overlook issues of equity and regional balance in order to appease the presence of the Executive in the PSC. For example, I do not see the reason why the Leader of Government Business is a member of the PSC whereas the Speaker is there because he is the head of this institution. At that point, it was necessary so that we did not antagonise the Executive, so that it allows this Bill to go through. Through the PSC, we have made very remarkable strides into improving Parliament. Now this Parliament even has a research unit. If I want to know how many Parliaments have Parliamentary Service Commissions that have persons who are not MPs serving on them, I would get that information in less than an hour. We have a Legislative Drafting unit that is able to do drafting for us, and the Attorney-General's Chambers now cannot slow down individual hon. Members' Bills; we have our own Legislative Drafting unit. Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, it is only the control of the parliamentary calendar and the enactment of the Budget policy that are remaining for this Parliament to be completely independent. Many of us think that because something is working so well, we do not need to make it better. Some hon. Members have the fear that if we change the current composition of the PSC, we will then be slowing it down. I want to raise the mischief that this amendment wants to address, so that I can allay fears of those hon. Members who may be having issues with non-members coming to the PSC. Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, number one is the fact that, as an institution, Parliament has a public relation nightmare. Members of the public and the media perceive us as an institution that does no other work other than increase our salaries. This is despite the fact that we never recommended the salary increment ourselves. It was done by an independent commission. We must ask ourselves, why it is that the Judicial Service Commission (JSC) or the judges do not have their salary increments questioned by members of the public? Why do we not have questions by members of the public on salary increments by the Public Service Commission (PSC)? I want to assure this House that it is not the amount of money that Members earn. For one, the head of the Kenya Anti-Corruption Commission (KACC) earns three times what a Member of Parliament earns, yet nobody is raising an issue about his salary. I wish to submit that the reason we are having issues with members of the public is, the Parliamentary Service Commission (PSC) is perceived and seen as both judge and jury in determining the welfare of Members of Parliament. Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, in this amendment, I am calling for non-sitting Members of Parliament to be members of the PSC to act as moderators. They will act as internal auditors of the actions and proposals made by sitting Members of Parliament. I have an issue with the perception members of the public have, that Members of Parliament earn a lot of money. However, I do not have the moral authority to stand up and say that, \"yes, we deserve this pay\". This is because I am a beneficiary of this good pay. I am a beneficiary of the good facilities that Parliament provides. If we had a moderator, he would then say, \"yes, the decision was reached because of the following factors\". He would have a better public relation credibility than a sitting Member of Parliament who does not have. I know people are fearful and do not want change but as we look forward when calling for change in all institutions so that they are more transparent and accountable, we must start with our own house. We should start to ensure that the PSC composition is transparent and accountable. Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, the other issue that I am hoping to address with this amendment is the fact that as a House, we have a problem to always preach water and drink wine. For example, for the last two weeks, I have been mentioning the issue of women not being 2042 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES July 23, 2008 appointed Permanent Secretaries and those who attain the age of 55 years being promptly retired while their grey-haired men colleagues are retained. We are talking about the need for the Executive to implement the 30 per cent allocation for affirmative action that was promised in a circular, when the PSC in its eight years of existence has never had a female Commissioner. Do we have the moral authority to talk about affirmative action? Do we have the moral authority to talk about promotion of women when the PSC staff does not have women in high ranks to even have merited to apply for the position of the Clerk of the National Assembly that fell vacant a few months ago or even that of the Deputy Clerk? To my understanding, the highest placed woman is in the fourth tier of hierarchy in this Parliament. How do we tell people out there that they should promote gender parity in their---"
}