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{
    "id": 436560,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/436560/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 121,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Wetangula",
    "speaker_title": "The Senate Minority Leader",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 210,
        "legal_name": "Moses Masika Wetangula",
        "slug": "moses-wetangula"
    },
    "content": " Thank you, Mr. Speaker, Sir. I laud the Committee, chaired ably by the distinguished Senator for Kakamega and vice chaired by the distinguished Senator for Elgeyo Marakwet. I also laud all the Members who spent their weekend working for this Senate. Mr. Speaker, Sir, this morning, a court in Israel sent to jail an immediate former Prime Minister for ten years and a fine equivalent to Kshs25 million for corruption. In the same country, the immediate former President is in jail for rape. Last week, the Prime Minister of Thailand who had been popularly elected was sent home by the courts for flouting the Constitution. Examples are endless. Mr. Speaker, Sir, here in Kenya, we have a new Constitution that brings on board new expectations, responsibilities and everybody must work within and under the Constitution. It is not, like Sen. Murkomen said, the quantum; it is not that one was a repeat offender, the moment you are caught, you must face the music. This House is faced with a decision to make; forget that we dealt with the Wambora issue some two or three months back. We are now dealing with a case that has come here on its own merit and the Committee has listened to evidence. What is startling is the level of arrogance that was exhibited by the governor in question. Mr. Speaker, Sir, when I talked to one of the Members of the Committee, I told him that the right to be heard includes the right not to appear; the right to be heard includes the right to appear and say nothing; the right to be heard includes the right to cast aspersions on the court; the right to be heard even includes some misguided approach of exhibiting unhelpful arrogance. You still have your right to be heard. When a person is invited to a legitimate organ of the Constitution like the Senate, and you are told you have to answer to the following charges, and you send a lawyer who abdicates his duty to advise the client and goes to insult the Committee, then that lawyer is not helpful to the client either."
}