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{
    "id": 491634,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/491634/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 254,
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    "content": "Allow me to say that in terms of contemporary debate, in the last few weeks, regarding separation of powers, what has emerged is that those in the legislative arm of Government, whether at the national or county level, are willing to be subservient and to defer to the Judiciary on matters that are actively in court. These matters cannot be discussed in this House or in county assemblies in accordance with this Bill. I see no difficulty as the sponsor of this Bill. I am unable to see why our Judiciary has not extended a reciprocal arrangement that can allow them to refer to Houses of Parliament, matters that deal with the core mandate of Parliament, namely; legislation, oversight as well as representing the people. This Bill, therefore, among other things underpins the traditional requirement that matters that are alive before court cannot be discussed in county assemblies. This goes a long way in honouring the parliamentary tradition of referring to the Judiciary the issue of determining cases. I do not want to speak too much on this Bill because I think most of the speakers have touched literally on every other provision and I also made very extensive remarks when I was moving this Bill. Through this Bill, several things are going to happen. First, we expect that if this Bill is enacted, county assemblies will acquire the legal protection from those who think that county assemblies are inferior parliaments. County assemblies, for the avoidance of doubt, are legislative arms of one level of government called county governments. They are no lesser than any other legislative arm even at the national level. Of course, there are one or two constitutional imperatives, for example, that require that the law that county assemblies make are subordinate to the laws that the legislative arm of the national Government makes. In other words, the laws made by the National Assembly and the Senate at the national level would take precedence over the laws that county assemblies make at that level. Other than those small differences, these are Houses of Parliament and they should be respected. Madam Temporary Speaker, without much ado, I once again would like to thank all my colleagues for the wonderful contributions and the total support that this Bill has received from both the majority and minority sides. I hope that this Bill will find its way into the Third Reading and, hopefully, be concluded as soon as possible so that it can take effect. It is also my joy to see that we are doing well in terms of processing new legislation in this House because in the past one year, it was not possible to process so many Bills. So, I am happy to see that this is going to add to many of the Bills that are emanating from this House. I say this with a lot of pride. Other than that, I wish to thank everybody. With those few remarks, I beg to move that the County Assemblies Powers and Privileges Bill, (Senate Bill No. 11 of 2014) be read a Second Time. The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposes only. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor, Senate"
}