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"speaker_name": "Mr. Muturi",
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"legal_name": "Justin Bedan Njoka Muturi",
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"content": "Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, as you can now see, positions do change, as I observed earlier on. The hon. Minister will be at liberty to say everything she wants to say when she will respond. She can deny all what is contained in the HANSARD of 25th July, 2002. Surely, I cannot begrudge her for doing that. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, the Bill before us requires that the House passes an amendment to Sections 58, 59 and some minor consequential amendment to Section 123. This is just to describe what a Session is. Just to recapitulate, if you look at the current Section 59(1), you will see that it says that the President may at any time prorogue Parliament. We are saying that at this age and era we cannot leave the responsibility to prorogue Parliament to one individual, who is also an hon. Member of this House. We are saying that, as a House, we need to make a provision in our Constitution so that prorogation times and the five-year period are known. In this way, on every 30th of November, we will go home because Parliament will stand prorogued. We will come back on the first Tuesday of February the following year. I cannot see anything that can be as enlightened as this proposal. All we are saying is that, that should not continue to be the function of the President because he has a dual role. He is the head of the Executive and is also a Member of this House. We are with him in what we are saying because, at the end of the day, he will have to sign this Bill into law if we pass it. We are not trying to shortchange the President. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, if you look at Section 59(2) of the Constitution, it states: \"The President may at any time dissolve Parliament.\" Those of us who were here in July, 2002 when we were debating the original Bill know how eloquently several hon. Members made impassioned pleas for this to be removed. It is really something that you cannot imagine; that you can come here for five years, serve for one year or six months and depending on what the President thinks of the 222 of you, he can wake up one morning and dissolve Parliament. It makes an absolute mockery of democracy. You will have been elected by your constituents just as the President will have been elected by his or her constituents and Kenyans at large. How come then that it can take him only three months to decide that the best thing to do is to dissolve Parliament and thus subject you to such inconvenience? Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, just to borrow the words used by one of the Members of Parliament and the immediate former Minister for Justice and Constitutional Affairs: \"Even kindergarten and nursery school kids are better placed to know when it is that their schools open and when it is that they will close.\" All we are asking for is that it be stated in the Constitution that Parliament will run for five years from the date that it is elected. We want to remain for five years as Members of Parliament. Parliament will only be prorogued during recess within the stipulated period. If you read this Bill clearly, it states that in Section 58(2): \"Subject to Section 59, the sittings of the National Assembly in a Session of Parliament shall be held at such time and on such days as may be determined by the Parliamentary Service Commission and approved by the National Assembly.\" All that we are saying is that we can actually, within this provision, begin looking at our own Standing Orders because we will define which days we shall be sitting. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, we have been told that sometimes we do not even pass enough Bills! How can we be blamed as a House for not passing Bills when, indeed, it is not the business of the House to prioritise business, and especially Bills? Members of Parliament have only two hours on Wednesday morning for Private Members' Motions. When we are accused by the entire nation and the world of doing too little and earning too much, we are saying, \"allow us to June 6, 2006 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 1155 work.\" We know, for instance, that it is the responsibility of the Government of the day to prioritise business in the House. So, when the Government of the day does not do that and decides to prioritise a Bill such as the Sexual Offences Bill, even though important, then we cannot be blamed for not passing enough Government Bills. We want to tell Kenyans and the world that the blame should be placed where it actually belongs. It is not us to be blamed. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I am surprised that anybody, at this age and era, would stand here to oppose such a forward-looking request by hon. Members who want to say: \"Please, allow us to be able to set the times that we sit! We do not think sitting on Tuesday afternoons only is enough. We think that we should sit for more days and more hours.\" Now, for anybody to stand here and oppose this Bill, he will be telling the world that we do not want to work, then the blame comes to Parliament! If we want to show the world that we are committed to working, we must be blamed for what we are responsible for. We just came from a long recess."
}