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{
    "id": 492425,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/492425/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 87,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. Wakhungu",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 1889,
        "legal_name": "Chrisantus Wamalwa Wakhungu",
        "slug": "chrisantus-wamalwa-wakhungu"
    },
    "content": "Hon. Speaker, when you talk of the presidency, it is a symbol of national unity and our CORD has never said that we do not respect our President. Indeed, we respect him but one thing I want to say about what happened on that very day is that, personally I was not here. I was out of the country attending the Northern Corridor Conference in Kampala but I want to congratulate His Excellency the President for accepting to go to The Hague. Indeed, under our Constitution we have an international obligation in line with the Rome Statute and His Excellency did very well to go to The Hague. Much as it was said that it was a personal issue, it also shows that he respects the rule of law. On the issue of handover of power, I do not see anything extraordinary His Excellency did in terms of assigning his Deputy President to be the Acting President. Article 147(2) of the Constitution says:- “The Deputy President shall perform the functions conferred by this Constitution and any other functions of the President as the President may assign.” So, there was nothing extraordinary. Even if the instruments of power were not given to His Excellency the Deputy President, still he was going to act as the President of this country in the absence of His Excellency the President. In fact, the extra shows of handing over power were unnecessary. In many other jurisdictions like in South Africa sometimes back you realise that the late Nelson Mandela who was by then the President of South Africa actually handed over power not to his deputy but to his critic and who was in the Opposition, Buthelezi. So, in terms of the excitement that is going on we do not see anything extraordinary. He was just performing his duty as the Deputy President of this country. Hon. Speaker, I was listening keenly to the Leader of Majority Party when he was moving and more importantly the issue was the target of Rift Valley. This is what came from his mouth. He mentioned something about the Rift Valley. I think the President was sharp enough and he knows what he wanted. He did it in a good way. The people of Rift The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor."
}