HTTP 200 OK
Allow: GET, PUT, PATCH, DELETE, HEAD, OPTIONS
Content-Type: application/json
Vary: Accept
{
"id": 255750,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/255750/?format=api",
"text_counter": 70,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Mr. Awori",
"speaker_title": "The Vice President and Minister for Home Affairs",
"speaker": {
"id": 290,
"legal_name": "Moody Arthur Awori",
"slug": "moody-awori"
},
"content": " Thank you, Mr. Speaker, Sir. I was saying that, up to now, there are well over 150 cases of corruption that are in courts today. Other people are still being summoned by Kenya Anti-Corruption Commission (KACC) and various other structures that deal with corruption. We need to practise democracy correctly. We do not need to personalize those cases. Mr. Speaker, Sir, we intend to re-publish all the Bills that were not debated last year. A 23 March, 2006 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 55 good number of the Bills are extremely important. For example, the Minister for Health has, all the time, wished to ensure that all members of our society access health at an affordable price. That means that, we must get the Bill through this House by the middle of this year. Similarly, we would like to turn the National Social Security Fund (NSSF) into a proper retirement body. That Bill will be coming to this House. A person like me who comes from a cotton-growing area would like to see the Cotton Bill go through this Parliament. There are many more Bills that are extremely important to the welfare of this country. Therefore, I am requesting my colleagues to remain in the House most of the time, so that we do not lose days because of lack of quorum. All of us are being paid to attend Parliament. It would be appropriate, as the President said, to give priority to the business of this House. That is my appeal in particular, to my colleagues on the Government side. Mr. Speaker, Sir, the East African Community is extremely important to us. I would like to support the integration of this country because I know that when we have a large population then our economy is going to grow at a higher rate. Mr. Speaker, Sir, I very much want to see that the elusive new Constitution is given to this country. May I appeal to all hon. Members to support the Kiplagat Committee so that it can give us a road-map to a new Constitution. We would like to be using a new Constitution as we move to the next general elections of 2007. Mr. Speaker, Sir, the President mentioned a very fundamental point that he is going to expand the Judiciary by increasing the number of judges and magistrates. We have been trying to reform the prison service. One of the impediments has been the lack of adequate magistrates and judges that preside over cases. When you go to any of the prisons, you will find that 60 per cent of the inmates are remands. There have been people in remand homes or in remand custody sometimes for as long as five to ten years. There are cases of people in prison waiting for their appeals to be heard for as long as ten years and after they are heard, people are found to be innocent. I want to congratulate His Excellency the President for this move and to ensure that the Ministry of Justice and Constitutional Affairs factors in adequate remuneration for judges. We would like also the terms of service of senior state counsels to be upgraded so that they are not attracted to jobs in the private sector. Mr. Speaker, Sir, in conclusion, I want to once again reiterate the point I made at the beginning of my contribution that it is time that we looked at ourselves and each other as mere adversaries and not as enemies. We need to pool together so that we can pass through the legislations in order to help our people live well. By doing so, we will jump-start our economy and achieve our set targets. Although the target of 500,000 jobs per year was set by the NARC Government, let us not try to do anything that will make it impossible to achieve it, in order for an alternative government to come in. This is because even when an alternative government comes in and inherits a difficult situation, it takes a long time for its work to be seen. With those few remarks, I beg to move."
}