Entry Instance

HTTP 200 OK
Allow: GET, PUT, PATCH, DELETE, HEAD, OPTIONS
Content-Type: application/json
Vary: Accept

{
    "id": 412051,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/412051/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 251,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. Aden",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 15,
        "legal_name": "Aden Bare Duale",
        "slug": "aden-duale"
    },
    "content": "accommodate the President’s reservations by way of voting. Looking at the agenda that is before us today, it appears this House is about to indulge or go into a Committee of the whole House to discuss something that, indeed, is not in the Bill that this House forwarded to the President. This House has a responsibility to protect the Constitution that we have; under Article 94(1), indeed, legislative authority is derived from the people and vested and exercised by Parliament. What we are about to do here today, which is to pass a suggested legislation by the President, is indeed a contravention, in my view, of the Constitution of Kenya and I seek your guidance of this House on the issue that is here. The reason is that this particular article 115(4) mandates Parliament to amend the referred Bill, with or without the President’s reservations. Therefore it will be unconstitutional, in my view, for this House to restrict amendments to the reservations presented by the President only. We need your guidance as to whether, indeed, it is constitutional for this House to be limited to debate only the recommendations of the President. If this House is to pass anything today, it should not pass the issues put here as the views of the President. We can only consider these views in passing that particular Bill, which has been returned to this House. Hon. Speaker, Sir, I seek your guidance; this House, in a previous Bill stood accused from out there for a number of issues, including those to do with the fact that even our previous Bill violated Article 34(2)(a) and (b), which forbids any person from the media--- Allow me to just refer to Article 34(2), which states that the State shall not (a) exercise control over or interfere with any person engaged in broadcasting, the production or circulation of any publication or the dissemination of information by any medium. At 32(b) the Constitution states that the State shall not penalize any person for any opinion or view or the content of any broadcast, publication or dissemination. Indeed, the previous Bill passed by this House was debated very much and had those constitutional issues; it appears that this House is about to make another mistake by trying to debate the suggestions of the President as the main Bill to be discussed, which is not the case. For that reason, I seek your direction on this issue, which, in my view, is a violation of the Constitution, in particular the Articles I have referred to. Thank you, hon. Speaker, Sir."
}