HTTP 200 OK
Allow: GET, PUT, PATCH, DELETE, HEAD, OPTIONS
Content-Type: application/json
Vary: Accept
{
"id": 38085,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/38085/?format=api",
"text_counter": 299,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Mr. M. Kilonzo",
"speaker_title": "The Minister for Justice, National Cohesion and Constitutional Affairs",
"speaker": {
"id": 47,
"legal_name": "Mutula Kilonzo",
"slug": "mutula-kilonzo"
},
"content": " Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, thank you for giving me this opportunity. I want to very loudly and publicly thank the hon. Member for removing a big burden from my narrow shoulders by moving this very important Bill. It will be recalled that before the House went on recess, I was asked to give an undertaking that as the Minister, I would propose such legislation. Therefore, Mr. Mungatana is a brother and truly a brother indeed for bringing this Bill forth. I had already communicated with Mr. Mungatana suggesting that we discuss the Bill to see whether I would take it over. However, as you are aware, I have an enormous amount of legislative agenda on my desk and it has not been possible to hold that meeting or even to discuss the Bill. Therefore, I unreservedly support this Bill although it must be noted that during Committee Stage, I will be making a number of recommendations. I am going to speak with Mr. Mungatana before that event. The events that this country has witnessed in the last few weeks of public participation in the recruitment of important personalities to carry out the job of serious representation of the Kenyan people in the realization of the new Constitution has made it very clear that the sooner we have a clear method on how Parliament will decide and deal with nominations, the better. In fact, above all, the country needs to be reminded that come the next elections, at whatever date, the Ministers who will serve this country will no longer be called Ministers. They will be called Cabinet Secretaries. All of them without exception, including the hon. Attorney-General, will require approval of this House. Therefore, the time has come for us to have a mechanism; a structured method of ensuring that those Kenyans who want to donate their careers to the country are accorded proper respect and treatment when they appear before this august Assembly for purposes of approval. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I will go even further. I will be suggesting that at some point, we also develop a criterion for the selection committees that are now going to be a feature of our political and social life for a long time in order to avoid some of the problems we have witnessed in the past. I salute the Judicial Service Commission (JSC) for the work they have done and continue to do. I salute the other selection panels that are grappling with a very complicated issue of nomination. Therefore, this law itself will be a yardstick or land mark opportunity for Kenyans, particularly the women folk whose role in human and social spheres including politics and economics will begin to come to the fore as we implement the Constitution. We want a mechanism to establish and enable women, particularly those who are married, so that they are not denied the opportunity to serve the country merely because political parties want to do gerrymandering and asking them where they come from as though a married woman can actually have a fixed aboard. The issue is whether they were born in a particular place and where they are married. Therefore, I want to salute the hon. Member for bringing this Bill. It is fair that I restrain myself at this point from saying what proposals I will be tabling because I will. He is a man who I know will give me a suitable hearing so that we can see whether we can reach a consensus. In addition, I am pleading with this hon. House through the leadership of the House and political parties, to find a very fast solution to the fact that I remain the only Minister without a departmental committee. This is because of the challenges the Departmental Committee on Justice and Constitutional Affairs has faced for several months. My work has been made double complicated. As it is, I have been forced, even on Budget proposals, to go directly to the Budget Committee. On legislation, I have been forced to go directly to the Constitution Implementation Oversight Committee (CIOC). That alone eliminates a window for cross checking the work that the Ministry is doing before it reaches the Floor of the House. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, in addition, you notice I do not have a departmental committee that would have helped me to audit this proposed Bill so that we can have an input of the people specializing and elected by this House to that very important committee. I would urge hon. Members to support Mr. Mungatana and to salute him for taking this initiative. I would also like to urge other Members of Parliament who have expertise in various areas to join my Ministry in ensuring that the implementation of the Constitution is fast tracked by interrogating Bills that we bring and above all to remember that after the 27th August this year, the real work of constitutional implementation will begin. There are many people in the country I meet who think that constitutional implementation is limited to the status listed in Schedule Five. Perish the thought. I want to tell my country that the problems that lead to a 20 year period fighting for a new Constitution are buried in existing legislation. They are buried in existing practices. They are buried in existing viewpoints that our country has enjoyed since Independence and before. Therefore, I am hoping that Members of Parliament will, during this short period of four weeks remaining between now and 26th August, when my Ministry will finalize the particular Bills we are originating, we will also be looking at the existing law, including the Penal Code, the Criminal Procedure Code, the Marriage Act and all those things. That will ensure that we can, once and for all, formulate other legislative instruments for purposes of making sure that Kenyans truly enjoy the benefits of the dream they brought to reality in August last year, when His Excellency the President, on their behalf, promulgated the new Constitution."
}