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{
    "id": 423844,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/423844/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 261,
    "type": "other",
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    "content": "the importance of this exercise and the importance of the review of Standing Orders. I want to support what the seconder of the Motion, my senior, Sen. Orengo has said, which is, that ordinarily in the traditions of Parliament, review of Standing Orders is not an everyday thing. It is not something that would happen often. Therefore, it is one of those things that are rare. In fact, in most cases, Standing Orders are reviewed to take effect in the next or subsequent Parliament. So, we count ourselves as very lucky to be involved in this exercise of making sure that our Standing Orders are better and more coherent. We have sealed the gaps and loopholes that exist in the Standing Orders at the moment. Mr. Speaker, Sir, let me thank the Committee and the sub-committee of the Rules and Business Committee. Let me also say that I have read with a lot of keenness all the recommendations and I have noted, for example, the prayer that we make here every day is proposed for shortening. I have read that prayer, I have compared with the prayer we had before and I am sure it is good. It is short and strong enough and it is consistent with the first paragraph in the preamble to our Constitution which says:- “We the people of Kenya, recognizing and acknowledging the Supremacy of the Almighty God of all creation.” So it is consistent with the Constitution, it is consistent with the National Anthem that opens by saying “Oh God of all creation”. Sometimes we take for granted things like having prayers in our institutions of governance, having prayers in our national anthem and having prayers in our Constitution but I am convinced beyond doubt that these are some of the things that stabilize a nation. These are some of the things that make a nation grounded. I know in some countries, they are even trying to remove any mention of God or mention of prayers from their constitutions and from their currencies. These are places where you can see that there is a lot of decadence and a lot of deviation from the basic foundations that are essential for the formation of the society. Therefore, I want to commend the work done around that. Mr. Speaker, Sir, the second thing that I want to say is that I have seen proposals by this Committee around the issue of political leadership in the Senate, I want to agree that we need to strengthen the position of deputy majority and deputy minority leaders so that they can serve the parliamentary parties which they represent in this House so that they are not seen, as I have heard in some quarters which I will not name because they are outside this House, there are people serving in these positions and nobody knows what they do. They look like flower girls and flower boys just escorting the substantive holders of office; which is not the intention of the drafters of the Constitution and it is not the intention of the drafters of the various legislations that create these offices. So, it is good we strengthen the offices so that when the majority leader is not present, automatically, the deputy majority leader acts and does so with authority and influence. The same applies to the whips, rather than having a situation where when the substantive holder of that office is not around, the deputy has no authority to transact and represent the parliamentary party concerned. So, this is a very welcome proposal. I have seen that they have also strengthened the process of removing such people from office including the majority leader, which is also good, because it will encourage accountability. Sometimes you get into an office and you think you are the best thing that happened in the world. You forget that these public or party positions can be occupied by any other person. So, it is good that we be reminded that there is even that process of 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."
}