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{
    "id": 345974,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/345974/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 364,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Mr. Keynan",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 41,
        "legal_name": "Adan Wehliye Keynan",
        "slug": "adan-keynan"
    },
    "content": "Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I want to take this opportunity to thank my colleagues. At least, I am happy that all of them are back from the Christmas Holiday and the New Year. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, one of the reasons that informed the publication of this Bill is that the Constitution under Article 132 (4) (c) lists the conferment of honours in the name of the people of Kenya in the Republic as one of the functions of the President. How this has been done in the past and how it is being done even right now under the new constitutional dispensation leaves a lot to be desired. It is because of this and the realization that in the next few months, we are going to have a functioning county government, I feel that this House should not adjourn without legislating how this very important exercise is being adjudicated by those who are concerned. The Bill attempts to give effect and establish procedures and mechanisms for the award of honours. In particular, the Bill establishes or attempts or intends to establish the National and County Governments Honours Advisory Committee, the Parliamentary Honours Advisory Committee and the Judiciary Honours Advisory Committee. This is also in line with the separation of institutional roles. We realize that in the past, the Executive has attempted to usurp the powers of the two other independent arms of the Government to the extent that Kenyans have said that we have had an Executive of an imperial President. You remember before 1999 even this Parliament was listed as one of the small departments in the Office of the President. This was before we saw the birth of the Parliamentary Service Commission. Even that was contrary to the provisions of the Constitution. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, you must have seen that recently, even the way the recent awards were given, none of us today can explain. It is because of this realization that if a judge has to be honoured by the Executive, then that impairs the independence of that judicial officer. How do you expect the Executive to honour an outstanding Member of Parliament - for example, the Chairman of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) - who has been a pain in the neck to the Executive? Certainly, that Member will never see honours or an award from the Executive because he or she always does something that is contrary to the wishes of the Executive. It is high time we entrenched the rule of law by allowing the independent institutions - like the institution of Parliament - to establish mechanisms for award to Members or staff who do well instead of looking upon the Executive to recognize the meritocracy of those particular individuals. It is the same with the Judiciary. We leave the same with the Judicial Service Commission (JSC) headed by the Chief Justice and other institutional mechanisms to decide who deserves to be given a national award. The Constitution clearly talks about this as one of the functions of the Government. The issue of meritocracy has been replaced with mediocrity. Meritocracy is no longer an issue in the award of those honours and, therefore, some of the individuals"
}