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{
    "id": 466424,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/466424/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 21,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. Speaker",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "there. Really, that is not fair; it is unfair. I have evidence of it. So, I do not want to plead to that--- Even when hon. Members want to call them, let us call them at some designated place. We go there and address them on whatever issue that we want to address them on and then after that, they can leave. Let them not start going to some other places where they may not be always welcome. But of course, nobody has denied the media the rights to cover proceedings of committees of the House, unless the Chairperson of the committee determines that the matter being discussed is such that, perhaps, for reasons to be given or to be noted requires deliberations in camera. So, the point hon. Ng’ongo has raised is legitimate. I think we will get the Clerk to, again, re-designate for avoidance of doubt, the area where, temporarily, the media will be addressed by hon. Members whenever they have issues. That is if such place has not been so designated. I think the media are not aware of the place that maybe so designated. I think we will take up the matter and the media will be notified. For the time being, I think this issue about the media being kicked out of Parliament has been blown out of proportion. The media has not been kicked out of Parliament. They were requested to be sympathetic to Parliament; just like we know that there are hon. Members who do not have offices and we are still struggling to make sure that they also have some place from where to work. So, the media was merely requested to temporarily allow committees of the House to occupy and use that facility where they were temporarily allocated. But if committees are not using that facility, and I want to be given the information, then obviously, we cannot let the facility lie idle. We will make appropriate announcements relating to that. So, I would like to at least for clarity, state from the Chair that nobody is allowed, in terms of Standing Order 252, to bar the media from accessing committees of the House, unless the committee has directed specifically that the media is not allowed. There is nothing that committees are doing which is in secrecy. There is nothing that we do here which is a secret anyway! So, why would we even want not to allow the media to come and see what it is that we do, how we do it and of course, the drama that from time to time we are engaging in, which is part of the job? It is not bad. I have said time and again, because the media in Kenya also does not seem to appreciate this fact, that there are several methods by which hon. Members express themselves. When hon. Members, for instance, stage a walkout, it is a way of voting. It is a way of communicating. It is like going to war, you have only bows and arrows, and then you find the other side has got submarines and you take off. It is not bad."
}