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"speaker_name": "Mr. Affey",
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"legal_name": "Mohammed Abdi Affey",
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"content": "Thank you very much, Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, for giving me this opportunity to support this very important Motion. At the outset, I would like to say that this is an important Motion because it is a matter that concerns the implementation of our Constitution. Even as we support this Motion, it is important to ask ourselves how we reached this stage in the first place. One of the Bills which were very important was the Devolved Governments Bill. This is where I want to fault the Government side, particularly the Ministers, because when we were debating this, perhaps, half or three quarters of the Cabinet as it is currently constituted were not in the House. For those who were there, they were in line and supported, including the Attorney-General and the Minister for Justice, National Cohesion and Constitutional Affairs, the position of the House. It was an afterthought and only when the President refused to sign this into law after having realized that this Bill was not, in the view of the Government, in line with the tenets of our Constitution. He sent a memorandum to this House. That is the genesis of the problem. I think it is a lesson as we approve this Motion that as Bills come here, they get thoroughly debated in the House and that the Cabinet, because they are the ones who generate the Bills in the first place, are present and alive to the debate in the House, so that any amendment that the Members suggest can be countered by the thinking of the Government, so that together, all of us can walk this very difficult route of implementing our Constitution. This Constitution has substantial provisions and it is important that the Government implements the Constitution, not only the letter of it, but also the spirit. As I support this, even now you can see that a large section of the Members of this august House is not in. It is important that the Government Whip whips them, so that we can determine this Motion and implement the Constitution. With those few remarks, I support the Motion."
}