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{
    "id": 447483,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/447483/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 132,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "July 2, 2014 SENATE DEBATES 13 Sen. Kembi-Gitura",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "Mr. Speaker, Sir, those are two seconds wasted by the microphone. If we complete one session, it is going to be a lot of time lost so I think we need to do something about this system. I am on record as having spoken about this issue. A very good indicator is the statement you have just deferred to tomorrow from the Chairman of the Committee on Education. It is quite obvious - and I am not blaming him - that the Committee has not seen that answer; which means if you allowed him to go on and give it, he would have done it in exclusion of the Members of his Committee. It seems the answer was not interrogated and that is very dangerous. We do not blame them because some people have been Cabinet Ministers and some of them Assistant Ministers and they used to answer Questions in the House. Usually, they discuss them in the Ministry before they are answered in the House so when they go to the House, they have sufficient supplementary answers to address supplementary Questions. I do not think that the new Constitution contemplated a situation where we just get answers and get satisfied but we do appreciate what Sen. Kajwang and Sen.Wako have said. The point being made by Sen. Wetangula is of such great importance that we must find a way round this system. My proposal has always been, and I have said this more than five times in this House, that nothing stops this House from constituting itself into a Committee of the Whole and summoning Cabinet Secretaries and having them answer and be interrogated on the responses that they give. For me, it does not matter whether a proper answer comes to me when I am sitting in the Senate as constituted or whether in the Kamukunji or a Committee of the Whole but it must come in such a way that I get an answer that is satisfactory and that I am able to be satisfied. The Constitution is silent on many things. The Constitution does not say there cannot be Assistant Ministers, for the sake of argument. It says that there shall be a Cabinet Secretary but it does not say there shall not be a deputy or an assistant. So, it depends on whether you want to interpret the Constitution broadly or narrowly, it is your choice. Regarding the issue of Statements that we seek, we do not seek them for the sake of it. The Statement I have sought from the Committee on Education, for instance, is a question of policy. It is not about a school teacher who makes a young girl pregnant to be interdicted or not---"
}