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{
    "id": 416512,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/416512/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 88,
    "type": "other",
    "speaker_name": "",
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    "speaker": null,
    "content": "“I see two hon. Members of this court (Senate) Mr. Dayton and Baldwin, who were with me in the convention who like myself, know perfectly why this power to try for impeachment was placed in the Senate. It was because among all our speculated systems, it was thought that this power could know where it would be less likely to be abused.” I perfectly concur with these sentiments. The events of this trial would show that we could not have disposed of that power. In contradiction, a Member of the House of Representatives, who was among the members who were contributing before the Senate, said this:- “We have performed our duty; we have bound the criminal and dragged him to your altar” So, we are going to make a choice and I think the wisdom and the sentiments of both the Leader of the Majority and the Leader of the Minority that this power was donated to the Senate in the constitutional arrangement is something that we cannot ignore. In fact, I wanted to mention to the Senate that in the proceedings to impeach the president or to remove the president because of incapacity, the president would not appear before the National Assembly and I think that is for a good reason. In these proceedings if there were similar impeachments, the president would have an opportunity to appear before both the Committee and the Senate. There are very good reasons for this because Senators are very honourable men and women. Similarly, you can see that from Section 33 of the County Governments Act, the Governor was not given the opportunity to appear - I am talking not from the facts but from the law - he is not by law guaranteed to appear before the county assembly, but in the Senate, he is. Again, he is entitled to appear before both the Committee and the Senate and that is for a good reason. What I would plead with my colleagues - because of this momentous occasion historically and because of this very honourous duty, I would urge the House that at whatever stage that we deal with this matter, we do so as Senators and brethren. If you belong to any party or any organization, you should not look at this case as a partisan issue but on the basis of what the Speaker pronounced earlier; that this is a judicial process, although there are political intonations. I hope that by the end of this process and I am privileged to be in the Committee, at the end of the day, as I saw in the dailies the Senate was rated highly by the Kenyan people, that we will be rated even higher on the basis of how we would have handled these proceedings. For those reasons, I beg to support."
}