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{
    "id": 417687,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/417687/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 269,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. Kaluma",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 1565,
        "legal_name": "George Peter Opondo Kaluma",
        "slug": "george-peter-opondo-kaluma"
    },
    "content": "Thank you, hon. Speaker, for giving me the opportunity to talk to this very important Motion. I am personally a very sad Member of Parliament who is also an officer of the court; this is a court we have been struggling, as Parliament, to facilitate to be reformed and stable so that it can work better. Remember when we undertook the national Budget process for this financial year even the budget for this very Parliament was reduced by hon. Members here seated. The budget which was proposed for the Judiciary was increased on our insistence. We were doing that for very many reasons. Some of us are not here as politicians. Some of us made a decision to come to this House to expedite the reform process in the Judiciary, and, if possible, later go back there. I am very saddened that the image of the current parliamentarian is the image of that person who was stuffed in the middle of his body with nothing up there – it saddens me. I came to this Parliament, possibly, not knowing the kind of people the people of Kenya elected to this House, but the depth of intellect I found here amazes me every time. It really confounds. You hear hon. Members speak representing the people who elected them and you cannot believe it. I wanted to be clear on a few things, because I want to take time to answer the questions that the Chairman and, indeed, hon. Members are asking. The Constitution under Article 1 says that Kenya is a sovereign republic. That sovereignty, at Sub-article (2) is exercised either by people directly or through their democratically elected representative. Of course those democratically elected representatives are the President, Deputy President by dint of the provisions of the Constitution and, of course, the Members of Parliament. Do I find any doubt in the mind of the Judiciary that they exercise the sovereignty of the people of Kenya? In fact, I would request hon. Members, at their own time, to look at the provisions of Article 94(2). This is what it states: “Parliament manifests the diversity of the nation, represents the will of the people and exercises their sovereignty”. For avoidance of doubt I wanted to indicate that not the Executive and not the Judiciary exercises the sovereignty of the people of Kenya. That is why at times you hear us say that this is the assembly of the nation. The reason Parliament exists is that the people of Kenya cannot sit in one single stadium and speak on every single issue. They choose people to speak for them, including everybody else. 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."
}