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{
    "id": 362367,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/362367/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 175,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. Ng’ongo",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 2884,
        "legal_name": "Alice Wambui Ng'ang'a",
        "slug": "alice-wambui-nganga"
    },
    "content": "Thank you, Hon. Deputy Speaker, for giving me this opportunity. Let me take this opportunity to, first of all, thank, congratulate and commend the Committee on Delegated Legislation for a thorough job that they have done within a very short time. I would recommend to those of us who have not read this Report to take their time and read it. This is a very detailed and reasonable Report. I have heard a lot of comments about the independence of the commissions that we have set up. It is true that they are independent but the question is: Do they have powers to unilaterally make laws through gazette notices? If we allow the Salaries and Remuneration Commission to make law through gazette notices, tomorrow, the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission will go ahead to review boundaries and gazette them, and we will not have a say because they will claim independence. Tomorrow, the Commission on Revenue Allocation, chaired by Cheserem, will go ahead to determine the formula of sharing revenue and gazette it. We have to put a stop to that behaviour. The commissions have been given independence. But the Constitution stipulates that those commissions must run through Acts of Parliament. The Committee has ably and eloquently explained that this Commission has attempted, through the Gazette Notice, to repeal very many Acts of Parliament, including the Salaries and Remuneration Act and the Pensions Act. More fundamentally, do you know that Sarah Serem and her Commission have repealed their own Act? The Salaries and Remuneration Commission Act has been repealed through that Gazette Notice. The Act states very clearly how the Commission should conduct its mandate, including how it should look at other recommendations. However, Sarah Serem’s Commission ignored all that and did what it wanted to do through a Gazette Notice. Does that not amount to repealing the Commission’s own operational Act? In my view, it does. I want to cite a constitutional provision, which I find very interesting. Remember that through that Gazette Notice, the Salaries and Remuneration Commission has done away with the pensions of Members of Parliament. What she has done, with her Commission, is to say that, henceforth, Members of Parliament shall not be entitled to pension. But what does the Constitution say in the Sixth Schedule? Section 32 of the Sixth Schedule is about pensions, gratuities and other benefits, and it says:- “The law applicable to pensions in respect of holders of constitutional offices under the former Constitution shall be either the law that was in force at the date on which those benefits were granted or any law in force at a later date that is not less favourable to the person.”"
}