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"id": 421487,
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"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Hon. Ethuro",
"speaker_title": "The Speaker",
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"id": 158,
"legal_name": "Ekwee David Ethuro",
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"content": " Hon. Senators, I have a communication to make. You will recall that on Tuesday, 25th February 2014, the Senator for Elgeyo- Marakwet County, Sen. Murkomen, rose on a point of order and sought guidance from the Chair on whether the Senator for Garissa County, Sen. Haji was properly dressed within the meaning of our rules. For the benefit of Senators who were not in the House at the time, the Senator in question was dressed in a kanzu . I then allowed several Senators to comment on the matter as custodians of our practices and procedure and, consequently, promised to give a ruling on the same at a later date. Hon. Senators, the mode of dressing for Senators is defined in the Speaker’s Rules. In particular, Rule 5 states as follows:- “Members are required not to enter the Chamber, lounge or dining room without being properly dressed”. Proper dressing, therefore, has been defined as a coat, a tie, long trousers, socks and shoes or service uniform, or decent national dress for men, an equivalent standard for women, with hats optional. Hon. Senators, the question of proper dressing or otherwise in the House, so defined in the Rule quoted above has been a constantly recurring phenomena in Parliament over the last 50 or so years that Parliament has existed as an institution in independent Kenya. As Senators may expect, several communications have been made on the subject matter. For instance, as early as 16th April, 1968, the Chairperson, while responding to an objection on the dressing of a Member ruled as follows:- “Hon. Members, as I have said on other occasions, we have no Standing Orders concerning dress which I can enforce. It rests on the collective opinion of the House as to what is or what is not proper dress. If Mr. Mbugua does not meet with the approval of hon. Members, he will doubtless hear about it”. Similarly, on Tuesday 9th November 1993, the then Speaker of the National Assembly made this ruling, and I quote:- “As a guide, hon. Members are allowed in the Chamber while wearing a coat, collar, tie, long trouser, socks and shoes or service uniform or decent national dress for men and an equal standard for ladies. As practice also, hon. Member of the Islamic faith have, in addition, been allowed to wear a white kanzu buttoned at the neck and with a jacket, preferably a black one worn on top, a cap, socks and shoes” Hon. Senators, I can go on and give you numerous other rulings on the matter. As a matter of fact, a Motion was moved in the House on 18th July, 1963, urging the Government to set up a dress committee to recommend the design and form of an official dress to be worn by Members of the House. From the records, the Mover of the Motion appears to have been wearing what could be described as a traditional dress. As you can deduce from the foregoing, therefore, the application of the Speaker’s Rules on dressing has been applied with some degree of wide latitude. This is further compounded by the elusive concept of a national dress. The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposes only. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor, Senate."
}