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{
    "id": 425983,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/425983/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 287,
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    "content": "because we have to consider that this matter has been there for many years. We have to go by experience and look at those who have been fighting terrorism for many years. We should learn from them whether they were able to change anything. Many terrorists are freedom fighters of a certain group. We have to keep in our mind that we are dealing with the results of terrorism. The boys who just come and throw bombs are just actors or employed to do that job. The big question is: Who is their employer? Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, during the recess, we need to appreciate what has been put forward here because we must also understand that our people know very little about the Constitution. We need to take it upon ourselves to teach and train our people during the recess what the Constitution says about county governments, the national governments and the institution of Parliament; that is, the Senate and the Lower House. If our people understand these things, we will not be having many problems when we go back home. Since people do not understand what is contained in that document called the Constitution, they expect a Senator to be what is not stipulated in the Constitution. Sometimes, I get sad when I see some of us behave as if we have no authority or power and we are seen not to be giving anything to the people. For example, the Members of the National Assembly can give something to build a primary school, but a Senator cannot do that. This is seen by some Senators as if they are lower than the Members of the National Assembly. We have to put our foot down and tell the country that money that is being used properly or improperly by the county governments comes from the Senate. It goes through the Senate to the county governments. We need to educate the public about what we do. When I go to my county my duty number one is to tell them that all the money that they see in the county passed through the Senate. This is true. So, they should not worry about us doing a good job or not. Personally, I think we are doing a very good job. If we can assess the first one year, we have been having teething problems because we were trying to understand our own roles. The perceived bad feeling between the Lower House and the Senate will now come to an end because I am very sure that we now understand our roles. I have no doubt that we will be compelled by the Constitution to stick to our roles whether we like it or not. Other than that, there are those who still feel that we may not be useful to the state, but the only thing they can do is to fight for a referendum. If you cannot fight for a referendum and win then you should forget and stick to what is on the table. What we have on the table is from the Constitution and we need to understand it. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I want to thank the leadership of the Senate for coming up with this programme, especially the Senate Majority Leader. We have been very concerned about this programme, but I am glad we now have it. If we continue this way, then the Senate Majority Leader will be getting a lot of honour from this House. I also want to thank the Speaker, the Deputy Speaker, the other Members of the Speaker’s panel and the chief whips. I want to thank them because I have seen them do a job, since I am a good observer and, at the same time, a student of parliamentary democracy. 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."
}