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"id": 411495,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/411495/?format=api",
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"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Hon. Speaker",
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"content": "Well, I may not have difficulties addressing that. I am sure you have looked at your own Article 260 of the current Constitution and noticed that it does not make reference to the words “reservations” or “amendments”. Therefore, we will go by their natural meanings – their meanings found elsewhere other than in the Constitution. For guidance on this matter, we will just go back to the traditions, past rulings, past procedures, how past parliaments have dealt with matters to do with presidential memorandums or memoranda. When the President refers back a Bill to the House, does the President refer back a Bill with mere comments or does the President propose his own version of the Bill with regard to certain provisions thereof? The practice is, and has been that the President does not refer back a Bill to Parliament with an essay expressing displeasure about this or the other. The practice has been and that has been the tradition, whenever the President refers back a Bill that has been passed by Parliament for reconsideration, he does so with clear proposals; which proposals then are considered by the House. The House can amend those proposals and this has been the tradition. It can amend those proposals or pass them without amendments, but if the House wishes to do either of that, if it is passing the amendment adopting the President’s Memorandum or proposals with its own amendments, the House will be required to meet certain threshold which is the two-thirds. This is the case both in the current Constitution in Article 115, and was also the case in the former Constitution in Section 46. Therefore, we cannot adopt a new style of doing things. We will go by the traditions, and for the time being, those are the traditions and that is the practice; that the President has made certain recommendations or proposals to the House. Does the House agree with them, one after the other, the House expresses itself? Of course, there is a requirement that for the House to do that, it first must have a requisite quorum of two-thirds. Even before a Question is put, if the House does not have the two-thirds requirement, and it still feels that they are not comfortable with the President’s recommendations on memorandum--- Remember the recommendations from the President will be deemed to have been approved, because the House would have failed to raise the required threshold of the vote to be taken. I think the best thing for us now is to proceed having been advised. Hon. Kaluma, that appears to sit well with you. You want to speak to it? But let me say this, even as you speak to it, I can see hon. Okoth is also agitated, hon. Wandayi as usual, yes. But do not worry, what I have given is the procedure to be followed. We can speak to it, for purposes of wanting to seek clarifications but that is the procedure to be followed. So, we are unlikely to begin borrowing from the 14th amendment or the American Constitution, because that has not been our practice, we also keep saying that we have our own traditions. We only borrow from others when we do not have our own. We cannot say that today we are going to sit this way, tomorrow, we shall go and borrow from the Republic of Guatemala, no, it does not happen that way. We must first of all turn to our very own before we go to the others. Hon. Kaluma. 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."
}