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    "id": 427513,
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    "content": "to upgrade a little bit and to increase our troops. Since there is a new Constitution, the additional 310 soldiers that are being looked for cannot be sent their without approval by both Houses of Parliament. The point I wanted to clarify here is that when the UN decided a few months ago, because of the breakdown of law and order in South Sudan to increase the troops of UNAMIS from a total of 7,000 the global number to 12,500 troops, many countries volunteered to send troops and were declined. I will not name some of those countries for diplomatic reasons because we do not want to jeopardize our relationship with other countries. Many countries even those outside this continent wanted to contribute to the number of soldiers and were told by the UN that priority will be given to Kenyan soldiers. This is something that we must be proud of as a country and we must appreciate our military for giving Kenya a good name abroad. Mr. Speaker, Sir, a request has been made consistently since December and in fact, the request for another 1,000 soldiers but I think the President and military agencies thought that the number will be too big because of other commitments internally and elsewhere. So, they negotiated for the increase of the troops to be a total of 1,000, that is, 690 in addition to 310. So, the request which is being made today is a request to send an additional 310 soldiers to join their colleagues, the men and women who have served this country very well outside South Sudan for the last several years. Mr. Speaker, Sir, allow me also to say that this request is for the 310 soldiers to be deployed to what is referred to as static posture, which means that it is not a fighting force but a force to defend civilians and secure areas in a place called Wau in the southern part of South Sudan especially those who might be fleeing and would want to get refugee status in the nearby UN refugee camp in Wau. So, it is that clarity that I thought would help colleagues to understand the nature of this request. Mr. Speaker, Sir, allow me in this context to applaud our new Constitution because in the past, our men and women in the military were being deployed all over the world without consulting anybody, without asking Kenyans or their representatives. Courtesy of the new Constitution and courtesy to the people of Kenya who passed it, it is now clear that the Houses have to be involved. Allow me to briefly read Article 240 which is the basis of this request. Article 240(8) it says:- “The Council with the approval of Parliament may deploy national forces outside Kenya for regional or international peace support preparations or for other support operations.” Likewise, if any foreign military forces were to be deployed to Kenya, God forbid, but if that was required, again a recommendation by the national Security Council must be approved by Parliament. I think I should also clarify something which is important in this connection even for the consumption of Kenyans and the consumption of people who are involved in processing of requests to this House. That whenever the Constitution uses the world “parliament”, it refers to both Houses. I think some kind of civic education should go out there to assist so that in future people do not ask which House should be doing 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."
}