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{
    "id": 274058,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/274058/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 520,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Mrs. Odhiambo-Mabona",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 376,
        "legal_name": "Millie Grace Akoth Odhiambo Mabona",
        "slug": "millie-odhiambo-mabona"
    },
    "content": "Mr. Chairman, I want to speak on one of the issues that hon. Imanyara has spoken about. I would like to be very specific; to me, the specific issue is whether this is constitutional. This same House has pronounced itself on the matter of the appointment of the Attorney-General, the Director of Public Prosecutions and it was not an issue of voting. When an issue comes here and it is one that raises issues of constitutionality, it is an issue that the Chair must rule on. It is not an issue that we vote on. Issues of constitutionality do not call for a vote. I know that the hon. Attorney-General, who was my professor in jurisprudence maybe new, and he said that with due respect that he was involved in the writing of the first Constitution; fortunately some of us were involved in the writing of the first Constitution and this one; so, we are very familiar with what we said in this Constitution. I can, indeed, say that if we are talking about Article 174(h) being unconstitutional, what we are calling on you as the Chairman to rule on is whether, indeed, it is unconstitutional. In my view, it is unconstitutional. Even if you look at the Fourth Schedule that the Minster for Justice, National Cohesion and Constitutional Affairs has referred to, it talks about the roles of the national Government. It does not talk about restructuring. It talks about the role of the national government in relation to policing, recruiting, training and all that. If the President was talking about issues of recruiting, training and all that under the fourth Schedule, then that is right. But the issue of restructuring is one that comes to this Parliament. Fortunately, this is a unique Parliament where we are part of the Government, even though we refer to ourselves as the Back Bench sometimes; we are a Back Bench within the Government."
}