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{
    "id": 385101,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/385101/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 114,
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    "content": "terms of Parliament, Senators lead. Do not upset that order. I would appeal to them not to upset that order. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, in one of our seminars, I said that actually we have enough power and functions in this Constitution. I cannot conceive of any legislation which does not touch on the county. Therefore, all legislation – as you rightly stated – ideally have to come here because they touch on the county in one way or another. Therefore, as far as the legislative power is concerned, we have it. But together with the National Assembly, we have another more important function. It is the function to protect the Constitution. It is the function to promote the democratic Government. In that regard, we have power to discuss here and to pass resolutions on any issue, provided we are in the process of protecting our Constitution and advancing the democratic society of Kenya. In the unlikely event there is some legislation which does not touch on the county, we are not involved. In the exercise of our legislative power, we shall not be involved. But I think in the exercise of our passing resolutions here, if that legislation is unconstitutional, in our function to protect the Constitution, we have the right to pass a resolution. If there is any policy which derogates or violates the democratic governance of Kenya, we may not pass a legislation, but we have a right to discuss here and pass a resolution in the exercise of our function to protect the Constitution and to promote the democratic governance of Kenya. So, we have it. It could be very well be that there may be a few anomalies here and there in the Constitution but those are things that we can go into slowly with a view to amending the Constitution. Maybe for this purpose, it may be better that we have a joint ad hoc committee not only of Members of the Senate, but also of Members of the National Assembly, to go into some of those areas that need clearing up in a more civilized way rather than name calling which is a diversion from our core function of legislating. Calling each other names is a useless debate which should not be entertained. We should focus on the issues. There may be one or two issues in the Constitution which somehow escaped the drafters which somebody may hang on to and think that because of that, the National Assembly is higher than the Senate. I am saying that we discuss it jointly in a sober atmosphere with the interest of the people at heart. We could also have a joint committee that deals with legal matters to deal with this issue and come up with a solution on how to carry out these amendments. We would ultimately be required to do that. In the meantime, let me assure Senators that we have enough powers to work on here. On the issue of legislations, I support what my Vice-Chairman stated that this Senate must be involved in this process because of our oversight role and also because we want people on the ground to know that we are there. If you are not involved in any development activities on the ground, the people on the ground will not know that we are involved and that we are helping them. It is our ultimate function to represent counties, but behind the counties, there are people. That is why I support what my Vice- Chairman stated, that we should develop legislation which can bring us to be involved at the county level not only in development and drafting strategic plans, but those plans should be the basis of the Budget. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, this year was a bit unusual because the timelines were not followed. Everything was delayed. Let us hope that this is the last Division of The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposes only. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor, Senate."
}