Entry Instance

HTTP 200 OK
Allow: GET, PUT, PATCH, DELETE, HEAD, OPTIONS
Content-Type: application/json
Vary: Accept

{
    "id": 437956,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/437956/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 225,
    "type": "other",
    "speaker_name": "",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "there is nowhere it says that when you are impeaching the President of the Republic of Kenya who is elected by people living in 47 counties, you must subject them to public participation. The Constitution already says that the Members of Parliament and county Assemblies are serving as representatives. They are elected to serve people. If you were a judge, this would be a plain reading of the Constitution. If you read Article 145 and 181, you will see that this House can make laws to assist in the impeachment of Governors. This Senate, sitting in the last House, as both National Assembly and Senate, made a legislation that was very clear. They said that they wanted to copy that of the President to serve the Governors. Therefore, trying to attempt to dissuade the public or mislead them that there is deficiency in law; that is wrong. This House has acted within the law and we do not need a law to look, again, at the process of impeaching Governors. What we need is to amend the County Governments Act to add a section that says; once a public officer has been impeached by Parliament, Parliament must vote again as to whether that person can ever hold the office forever. That is what happens in the United States. Once they have voted to impeach, they vote again to decide whether one can hold office. At times, they bar someone from holding office for 20 years. The Senate sits again after 20 years to review the decision. The Senate is successive and it does not matter who sat in the House 20 years ago. They can say that they have reviewed their decision that was made 20 years ago to say that a person should not have been blocked from holding office. I do not believe that there is any deficiency of the law. The law is sufficient enough. It is for us to act within the law. There is another misconception that his House is a lynch mob and that we sit here, make decisions and impeach anyone who is brought here. Nothing is further from the truth. This Committee that was formed for the first time in this House looked at the charges that came against the Deputy Governor of Embu and this House released her because we did not find anything that was sufficient against her. The facts are not being reported out there. They are just saying that this House has been lynching people. I do not believe that a process that is so meticulous, that involves two-thirds of a county assembly and more than half of the delegations of this House can be said to be illegal or reduced to a lynch mob. I want to tell the Committee Members, in the language that is going on, that they are the surgeons and not the morticians. They must do this surgical work with a lot of respect to the people of Kenya. They must ensure that Governor Chepkwony gets a fair hearing. If they find that he is not culpable, they can make a decision. If the Committee finds that the charges are not substantiated, there will be no need to gazette that this House sits again because there will be no report to receive. It is clear, in the law that it will not come to this House. However, if they find that the charges can be substantiated, they will bring the Report to this House and we will go through the trial process. People need to understand out there that what we are doing is borrowed from the Constitution and is what we have to do. Finally, I want to tell the Committee that the task they will carry out threatens the political interests, not only of the Governor alone but of those who supply goods to a particular county. It drives the political interest of people who are interested in getting 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."
}