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{
    "id": 423840,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/423840/?format=api",
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    "speaker": null,
    "content": "legislature, then the executive, the judiciary, and the system of governance known as devolution. Therefore, in the hierarchy and order of things, the legislature comes first. You should not be shy to say that the framers of this Constitution meant their words and meant the architecture of this Constitution by putting the legislature first. That follows from Article 1(2) of the Constitution which says that the sovereignty of the people is exercised directly by the people or through its elected representatives. Having said all that, I will just highlight one or two areas because I think my co-chair has gone through this Report comprehensively. First, when we require a Special Sitting of the House, it was a matter of the Majority Leader and the Minority Leader consulting, but we have said that to have a Special Sitting, there must be at least 15 Senators who agree with them that we need that Special Sitting. So, it is not a matter that is left only to the leadership of the House. The other one that my co-chair did not point out because they are several, is that Standing Order No.30 has also been amended so that this House will be meeting only during the afternoons of Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursdays so that we have enough time for Committees on Tuesday mornings, Wednesday mornings and Thursday mornings. This is because a lot of the Senate work will be done through the Committees. This is also very critical because it has been very difficult to have sufficient time for the Committees to do their work while the Senate is in Plenary. The other one is Standing Order No.33 which relates to adjournment on a matter of definite urgent national importance. Previously, it was required to give two hours notice but we think that if it is so urgent and important, those two hours should be reduced to one hour because you may just come from your county and there is an emergency and you arrive in the early afternoon and if you are required to give two hours notice, you may not be able to deal with the emergency. At least, for the purpose of the Senate to be seized of the matter, you needed at least about 12 or so hours. Mr. Speaker, Sir, since this Report has been with the Senators from last year and since my able co-chair has done a wonderful job by going through the Report comprehensively, we may have missed something but that is because we want these things now to be dealt with at a later stage clause by clause. With those few remarks, I beg to second."
}