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{
"id": 22576,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/22576/?format=api",
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"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Mr. Orengo",
"speaker_title": "The Minister for Lands",
"speaker": {
"id": 129,
"legal_name": "Aggrey James Orengo",
"slug": "james-orengo"
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"content": "Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, by enactment of the new Constitution, we have a new constitutional order. We have what has been properly called “the Second Republic” and there must be a new jurisprudence, as it were, because Kenya has substantially changed in terms of not only the basic law, but we have undergone the process of enacting implementing legislation. Therefore, I would think that during the vetting process that this body is going to undertake, they will want to ensure that those who are going to be vetted and found to be suitable will bring a new thinking and a new culture within the Judiciary. I agree with the Chairman that we still have to give this new institution the benefit of doubt, since they have not quite been well established, but as time runs, we want to see that the Judiciary is, indeed, fundamentally changed. It should be just like the newly established countries like South Africa, where you could see that there was new jurisprudence and constitutional order; the country was re-awakening to a different way of looking at things. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, the reason as to why I am saying this is because sometimes, I tend to get the feeling that within the Judiciary, there is still business as usual. Even with the enactment of the new Constitution, a lot of matters which are still going to court are being dealt with in the same old fashioned way. Talking from my position as the Minister for Lands, I would have hoped that as the Constitution now brings completely new jurisprudence on land, where land does not just belong to individuals, but belongs to the nation and the people of Kenya collectively, this new jurisprudence would inform the judgements that our judges are making within the framework of the new constitutional order. So, we want to feel that a new country has been born, a new Judiciary has been born, and make no mistake about it. In terms of what we are doing in Parliament, many times, I feel that a new Parliament has been born. This feeling is just from the way we go about legislation and our other business in the House. I support the Motion, and I feel that the Judiciary is very critical. I would rather that every arm of the Government fails, but not the Judiciary. I believe that we had an impartial and independent Judiciary, we could not have failed just like in many countries where there were dictatorships and yet the Judiciary was able to open up space for the country to move forward. This Committee has a duty not just to look at the moral character of these new judges, but to find out that in their thinking, they are alive to the new Kenya, which is a different country in many ways by the enactment of the Constitution. Otherwise, I beg to support."
}