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{
    "id": 463715,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/463715/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 280,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. (Ms.) Shebesh",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 377,
        "legal_name": "Rachel Wambui Shebesh",
        "slug": "rachel-shebesh"
    },
    "content": "Thank you, hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker. I want to contribute very briefly to this Amendment Bill. Listening to the Chair and Members of this Committee, it is obvious why there was a bit of tension between themselves and the Cabinet Secretary. I was in the last Parliament, and I am assuming that we looked at this Bill and gave too much power to the Cabinet Secretary. These are powers that in the new dispensation we are no longer giving to the Executive; instead we are giving them to commissions, authorities and legislatures. I start by commenting that the Bill ensures that the Cabinet Secretary, in his role, does not usurp any other power, or infringe on the rights of the media by having too much power. I do concur with the amendment that states the Commission which we had earlier suggested to be an authority be given full power to regulate the media. I am 100 per cent in support of freedom of the media, but there is nobody who does not need regulation. Everybody in this country, the Executive, the Legislature and the Judiciary has an arm that oversees, or regulates, it. We cannot allow the media to be unregulated. This Bill, therefore, gives us an authority that will be not only independent, but will also ensure that the rights and freedoms of everybody, including those of the media fraternity, are safeguarded."
}