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{
    "id": 407307,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/407307/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 384,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. (Ms.) Nyasuna",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 590,
        "legal_name": "Gladys Atieno Nyasuna",
        "slug": "gladys-atieno-nyasuna"
    },
    "content": "National Assembly.” Are we saying that we are ceding our powers through an amendment that has just come here and we are looking at it in a hurry? Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, if you look at the section on the Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC), this House has an oversight role over all constitutional commissions. No chair of a constitutional commission can be appointed without approval of this National Assembly. What this Statute Law (Miscellaneous Amendments) Bill is suggesting--- If you look at page 946 of this Bill it says: “Delete Section 1(6). Delete words with prior approval of the National Assembly.” So, we are saying that commissions can now operate and appoint chairs without prior approval of the National Assembly. What we are doing is giving away or ceding all our powers. Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, I come to an even more controversial amendment, I come from Homa Bay County. Homa Bay County has the highest prevalence of HIV. Eighty per cent of anti-retroviral drugs (ARVs) funding is from community service organisations (CSOs) and external sources. If we are now saying that we want to cap this funding at 15 per cent and these organisations get 100 per cent of their funding from outside and those of us who have been in this country have asked the Government whether it can do the funding, it is not proper. This is because we all want the Government to fund programmes such as those of provision of ARVs; but because of the shortage of funding that we have the Government has been unable to do so. What these people have been doing is complementing this funding. Now, if we are saying we want to cap this funding at 15 per cent, really where are we driving to as a country? These are amendments that we cannot look at. I understand that within these amendments there are some very urgent matters that need to be addressed such as the vetting of magistrates and judges. These matters should be isolated, brought to the Floor of this House, debated and passed because they are not even controversial. What we are saying is that Members of this House should be given time, so that even as we cede powers of the National Assembly we do so when we are awake and our eyes are wide open. We do not cede them in the middle of the night, that is at 11.00 p.m. and then wake up and ask: “What exactly did we do?” Give us time to review these Bills. Give us time for committees to sit down. Give us time for the public to participate in the passing of these Bills. Isolate these Bills. Take the ones that belong to the Departmental Committee on Transport, Public Works and Housing there. Let them be interrogated. Take the ones that belong to the Departmental Committee on Labour and Social Welfare there. Let them be interrogated. Take the ones that belong to the Departmental Committee on Health there. Let them be interrogated. That will not change the decision of this House. If we want to pass them, we will do so. If we want to fail them, we will do so. However, what we are saying is that we will be aware of what we will be passing; we will be aware of what we will be failing to do. Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, what we need is time and that is why I call upon you to rule. According to Standing Order No.127 the Committee has not reported progress to this House. When we have committee reports, it is usually very easy for us to debate them. Now, as I look through this Bill, I see “delete”, “delete”. I have to refer to 49 statutes, which I do not even have; it means I will not know what I will be deleting and introducing. The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor."
}