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{
    "id": 440320,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/440320/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 396,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. Ng’ongo",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 110,
        "legal_name": "John Mbadi Ng'ong'o",
        "slug": "john-mbadi"
    },
    "content": "Thank you, hon. Speaker. Let me also take this opportunity to support the adoption of the Report of the Procedure and House Rules Committee. I must thank this Committee for doing a commendable job within the timeframe that they were given. All of us will appreciate that if you ask any Kenyan about the role of the National Assembly, they will tell you that it is legislation, representation and oversight. If you look at Article 95 of the Constitution, you will appreciate that the first responsibility of a Member of the National Assembly is actually to represent the people of his constituency. The second responsibility is legislation and, finally, oversight. Therefore, the Constitution recognises the fact that the cardinal role or the primary responsibility that we have, as Members of the National Assembly, is to represent our constituents. Therefore, there is need for us to find a way through which we can exercise the representation role. I must admit that, that bit was missing in the Eleventh Parliament because we seek Ministerial Statements from fellow Members of Parliament, who have no role to play in the Executive, thereby creating confusion. Hon. Speaker, I want to agree with you about what hon. Makali asked. Article 153(4)(b) and another Article provided engagement between the National Assembly and the Executive. Article 153 actually refers to the engagement with the Committees. The other Article provides for engagement with the House, as it is. However, when it came to reviewing the Standing Orders, we missed out on the opportunity to capture in the Standing Orders how to engage with the Cabinet Secretaries, as a House. I have just two additional points to put across. Firstly, I know that there are some Cabinet Secretaries who will be appearing before this House more than others. I have in mind the Cabinet Secretary responsible for internal security. The other one will be the Cabinet Secretary responsible for roads, because most of us are more concerned about those two issues than any other issue. Therefore, we need to strike a balance and make sure that those Cabinet Secretaries are not perpetually here every week to address our issues. We should also give opportunity to other Cabinet Secretaries to tell us what they are doing. Finally, we also need to capture in the Standing Orders how to deal with a situation where we have slotted time for a Cabinet Secretary to appear before the House but he or she fails to do so. That is something that is likely to happen. We have provided for a maximum of Cabinet Secretaries per session. If we expect three Cabinet Secretaries to appear before the House one afternoon but only one turns up, and he or she happens to have a very short Statement, the time of the House will not be utilised properly. So, we need to find a way of making sure that the Cabinet Secretaries scheduled to appear before the National Assembly on a particular Wednesday from 3.00 pm actually turn up, so that we can engage them constructively. With those many remarks, I beg to support."
}