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{
    "id": 350078,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/350078/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 825,
    "type": "other",
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    "speaker": null,
    "content": "bicameral legislatures benefitting a lot from peer exchanges and expert advice from those legislators. In particular, we visited India, Australia, United Kingdom, Canada, State Legislature of Wisconsin, USA and the Congress of the USA. The background in which these changes have been made to the Standing Orders is primarily brought by constitutional changes that this country has witnessed. In August, 2010, all of us know that we enacted a new Constitution in which there was a shift from a mix of two systems of Government, that is, a hybrid of parliamentary and presidential system to a more of a semi-presidential system coupled with decentralization of power to county governments. This has drastically altered the legislature’s working structures, systems of representation, law making, oversight, budget making and the rules of procedure that are attendant to them. The Constitution determines the relations between the Executive and the Legislature; the Executive and the constitutional commissions and independent offices which are in Chapter 15 of the Constitution, 2010; and also between the Legislature and the constitutional commissions; and the two Houses of Parliament. The Constitution has also introduced the principles of sovereignty of people; supremacy of the Constitution; and the national values and principles of governance, including public participation and subjecting the institution of Parliament to the will of the people that we represent in this House. The Constitution has also converted Parliament into a budget-making organ from it s traditional budget-approving role. This is a unique function that Parliament is performing. The new Standing Orders of the National Assembly, the Senate and the Joint Rules of both has have been drafted to take into account the constitutional tenets and principles I have just mentioned. However, the Constitution, beginning with the Eleventh Parliament, has now separated the Executive from the Legislature. The cabinet secretary is the only member of the Executive answerable and accountable - singularly and collectively - as a member of the Cabinet to the National Assembly and to the Senate through the Select Committees. Members will recall that we will not have the pleasure of interacting with hon. Githae. Except for the elaborate proceedings to impeach and remove the President on grounds of incapacity, there are limited opportunities also for the President to access the Legislature. He can only do so when opening Parliament or delivering a special address to Parliament. These Standing Orders, therefore, provide for the procedures of engagement between the two organs. Much of the this procedure development shall also be left to developing usage, precedence and practice that shall, from time to time, be codified as and when they develop adequate acceptance. The Constitution of Kenya, however, retained the existing National Assembly and the Executive structure by suspending several articles during this transition period until all the results of the first elections are announced. Article 262 and the Sixth Schedule, in particular, retained the National Assembly existing before the effective date. Section 10 of the Sixth Schedule also provides that the National Assembly existing immediately before the effective date continues as the National Assembly under the Constitution of Kenya, 2010 for its unexpired term. Section 11 of the same Sixth Schedule also gives the current National Assembly the powers to discharge the functions of the Senate. The National Assembly, therefore, as it stands"
}