Entry Instance

HTTP 200 OK
Allow: GET, PUT, PATCH, DELETE, HEAD, OPTIONS
Content-Type: application/json
Vary: Accept

{
    "id": 491602,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/491602/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 222,
    "type": "other",
    "speaker_name": "",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "The making of legislation and law is not very pleasant to very many people. A law is made because some people want it. However, some people may not want it. We agree that there is a forum that law can be made. So, we must protect the people who make legislation. In this Senate, we also make some laws and do not always vote unanimously. We disagree on the text, purpose or import of a law. You must protect the people who make legislation so that they are not hurt outside the House because they made a law that injured somebody’s business or powers. Oversight is a more compelling area. You may be exercising oversight over an executive member who is very close to you. You are given power to inquire into what happens to the executive. You are given power to call witnesses and to compel production of evidence. Without this power to inquire, call evidence and to force attendance, you may not do your job very well. We are giving the Members of County Assemblies (MCAs) an instrument that they will use to do their job well, because that is what the country expects of them. The Bill has been done well. In fact, it is very close to our own Powers and Privileges Act. First of all, it defines the precincts of the House of the Assembly. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, for your information, right now the Homa Bay County Assembly is meeting outside the gazetted assembly because it is being renovated; they are meeting in a tent. That tent is now the precincts and so, it must be protected that way. Otherwise, people can walk in rudely and disrupt proceedings because that was not the precincts. So, we have to protect the precincts, whether they are meeting under a tree or under some tent, as I have already said. The law must protect that as the precincts so that business can continue. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, there is nothing as important in this job that we do – which is also being done at the assemblies – as freedom of speech and debate that is enshrined in Section 8 in this Bill. Without that freedom to say what you must say and to debate what you must debate with freedom fearlessly, the law must protect you. Otherwise, you may always be looking behind your shoulders to find out whether what you speak is not pleasant to somebody who may then cause harm to you. I think anybody who makes a speech fearing that they may end up in court or they may end up being punished will not be said to be having the freedom that is enshrined both in the Constitution and now in this Bill. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, on the issue of immunity from legal proceedings, we have used the Floor of the House sometimes badly to damage the reputation of other people; sometimes to even fight on the Floor of the House. Hon. Wetangula talked about"
}