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{
    "id": 477715,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/477715/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 255,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. (Eng.) Gumbo",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 24,
        "legal_name": "Nicholas Gumbo",
        "slug": "nicholas-gumbo"
    },
    "content": "entrenched in our country. It is not for nothing that Kenya is a multiparty democracy. We see party hopping yet we hold privileged positions on account of our parties. When people come to Parliament and county assemblies and then their loyalty to their parties start waning, I think we need to institute more discipline so that people can respect their parties, unless you are like my good friend, hon. (Dr.) Musimba who chose to fight it out as an independent candidate. If you use the party as a vehicle, you are obligated to respect the beliefs and philosophies of that party throughout the time you will be serving. The proposed amendment of the NIS Act may be good but the amendment should not include any mischievous invasions into the privacy of Kenyans. We know what the NIS has been doing. It presupposes to do a major constitutional function, but what it has been doing over time is to listen in on telephone conversations of Members of Parliament and when people are talking to their girlfriends. This really is not helping our country. If it is not invading the privacy of Kenyans we support it, but if it is meant to invade the privacy of Kenyans, it must not be put. The proposed amendments to the Universities Act; the powers of the Cabinet Secretary to declare constituent colleges, is very prone to abuse. I am speaking here as an engineer. I can tell you at the time we left the university; there was a requirement that for every engineer, you should have four technicians. But as we speak now, you find a situation where you have four engineers to one technician. It has been reversed. Kenya as a developing country needs more technicians than graduates. This idea of turning middle level colleges into constituent universities is something that as a House we must oppose. Lastly, speaking on the National Honours Act, I have spoken to it before. There are Members in this House who came to this House by garnering as much as 70,000votes. But hon. Speaker, there is something I have been totally unable to understand. You compete with somebody in an election, you defeat them, they end up as professional job hunters and finally, they end up in some commission. The next thing you know is that they are Moran of the Burning Spear. Members of Parliament who floored them, not once, twice or even thrice, cannot even get the Head of States Commendation. What are standards of bestowing national honours? I think really somebody who can come to this House is good enough and a hero in his or her own right. If we are to do an amendment, let there be an amendment that any Member of Parliament who comes to this House must be guaranteed a certain level of national honour. We feel very bad that my good friend, hon. Ng’ongo - he likes to talk about it, though I remind him that he was a Minister for only a few weeks. He likes to remind people. He does not even hold a Head of State commendation. The fellow he defeated, the fellow who never even got 2000 votes is holding the title of the Moran of the Burning Spear. What are the standards? There are people who, I am sorry to say, are only known for plundering our country and yet they hold national honours. So, I think we need a more comprehensive amendment of this Act. We have not forced our way here. We are here on account of the approval of the people we represent, and the least that can be done is that we deserve the national honours. I, therefore, wish to support but I will be proposing major amendments to this Act. Thank you, hon. Speaker."
}