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{
    "id": 380383,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/380383/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 169,
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    "content": "Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, in addition to the support of the county assembly members, members of the Fourth Estate have also got a very serious role to play in our democratic space and national development. Article 34 of our Constitution is very clear about the freedom of the media in Kenya. I believe that we, in this House, support the freedom of the media without exception. But in order for the media to do its job and especially to operationalize Article 35 of the same Constitution, which states that the State will publish and publicize any important information affecting the nation--- If you go to my county of Nyeri and want to have a press conference, you will have to look for a time when it is not raining, because you can only have a press conference outside; somewhere in the grass. I think that the case is the same almost in every place that you go. Again, when we went round with the Committee on Education, Information and Technology, in all the areas that we were speaking to the Press, we never had a single area where we could sit down with them and take a question. It was a question of standing somewhere in the parking lot and then you shift because cars are making too much noise. Members of the Fourth Estate should not be treated like that. They should be provided with a proper facility basically called a media centre in civilized nations. Instead of the members of the Forth Estate waiting outside, we should have a place that is properly lit and equipped with computers and broadcasting equipment, so that they are able to use that equipment to broadcast to the nation and the rest of the counties in Kenya. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, in the olden days, the Fourth Estate was following other estate generals, nobles, clergy and commoners. Today, the Fourth Estate is fourth after the Legislature, Executive and Judiciary. Today, the role of the media is bigger than all. Like Edmund Burke said in the House of Commons sometime in the 1700s, that estate is probably by far the most important. If, indeed, it is the most important estate, then it follows without saying that they too should be treated in a manner that reflects that importance. Whether we are talking about private or public media, they all play the very important role of disseminating information. Also, we should not provide those facilities in order to compromise the media. We should provide those facilities so that the media are able to oversight our Government effectively; whether it is national or county governments. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, I would also like to mention that the role that this House is being urged to play in facilitating should be at the county governments level, especially in matters of planning. The governors should engage the Ministry of Devolution and Planning to see whether it cannot support this Motion by providing the technical area, since it is supposed to provide capacity. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, I beg to move this Motion and ask Sen. Mong’are to second."
}