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{
    "id": 484391,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/484391/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 492,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. (Dr.) Khalwale",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 170,
        "legal_name": "Bonny Khalwale",
        "slug": "bonny-khalwale"
    },
    "content": "Mr. Speaker, Sir, in our culture during hard times like now, when you want to appeal to your age mate, you normally refer to the pain you felt when you went to the river on your way to circumcision and thereafter. Mr. Speaker, Sir, for the first time since you became Speaker, I want not only to disagree with you, but I want to disagree with you very strongly. I want to beg you to remember the years you and I have worked together, especially in the last Parliament during the Grand Coalition Government. It is during those days that we did many other things, including working on these Standing Orders. Mr. Speaker, Sir, I want to say the first bad thing to you and that is that these Standing Orders not only apply to me and the rest of the Members, but they also apply to you as our Speaker. Therefore, I want to agree with you that you have the power of that discretion. However, because of the love that I have for Parliament, I want that discretion to have a basis in law. To me, that discretion you are exercising under Standing Order No.1 – this Standing Orders states that; in all cases where matters are not expressly provided for in these Standing Orders or by Orders of the Senate, any procedural question shall be decided by the Speaker. Since this is the only Standing Order under which you can make that decision, you will then be contravening Standing Order No.34 because the problem today raised by Sen. Elachi is the issue of quorum and Standing Order No.34 has determined that there is quorum this afternoon. Mr. Speaker, Sir, in the many years you and I have been in Parliament, you have never seen that Bar drawn and then you open the doors without the vote being taken. Never! Even during the days of former Speaker, hon. ole Kaparo, when we were dealing with constitutional issues, he used to go out of his way to establish from the orderlies that the prerequisite numbers are in the House. If you move the way you are moving, you are training the young Senator for Kakamega wrongly as far as we are concerned. She stood for guidance and, therefore, she is properly guided. If she was not standing up for guidance, the Speaker should have told us that she was being frivolous. We love Kenya. There can be no Kenya without order. This thing has very serious ramifications."
}