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"id": 492892,
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"speaker_name": "Hon. Kaluma",
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"legal_name": "George Peter Opondo Kaluma",
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"content": "it is that cross-cutting what better forum for the Cabinet Secretary of Health, to meet the elected representatives of the people here seated and just go over it? We had the issue of security disturbing and concerning virtually all sections of this country a short while ago. You will remember the difficulties we had when a question was raised on the security situation in a section of this country, but of course, the Chair of the Committee could only say: “I am going back to the Cabinet Secretary and I will respond next time”. In the long run, the sensitivity of the question is lost. Time is lost. Let me tell the country once again that hon. Charity Ngilu was in this House today; the Cabinet Secretary for Land, Housing and Urban Development, and in less than 45 minutes, issues affecting land laws and regime in the country were treated here. If we went in the manner we usually proceed, the Cabinet Secretary would have gone to the Committee on Justice and Legal Affairs, the Committee on Environment and Natural Resources and to the Committee on Lands. In fact, the Cabinet Secretary would have spent, in total, a whole week, moving from one Committee of this House to the other. I wanted to urge the Cabinet Secretaries seated outside there not to fear. We are elected leadership. We are not here to harass or intimidate anybody. We are here to have a conversation as the leadership of the country on how best we want the various sectors you lead to proceed to be governed to help our people. Hon. Speaker, you have quoted several provisions of the Constitution, but let me remind Mr. Charles Nyachae, our senior colleague in the profession, Article 1(1) and (2) of the Constitution; the issue of the sovereignty of the people and how the people exercise it directly or through their elected representatives. Let me urge those people who contest this facility that we have created to be reminded of Article 95 of the Constitution that speaks to the roles of the National Assembly. These are the functions of legislation, oversight, representation and resolution of issues of concern to the people, Budget and of course, oversight of the Budget. Some of those issues cannot be executed if we just sat somewhere in a small committee. It is for the House to set how many of its Members to allow to sit in what type of committee to resolve those issues, so that the idea that we have created a committee that requires the entire Membership of the National Assembly to sit, is something very lawful. Nobody should worry that this is the plenary of the National Assembly. Indeed, as the Speaker said in the morning, if we had an alternative venue, we could all sit there and of course, the facilities would be the same and we proceed. No wonder to the Kenyan people outside there, you never saw the Mace and you saw us throughout addressing the hon. Speaker as indeed, the Chair of the Committee. He was not dressed in the regalia of the House. Every time I pass through Kisii County going to Homa Bay County, I get the idea that, that is one of the counties doing the few small things which we needed to do to our people. Level 5 Hospital in Kisii is the only hospital that everybody in the entire southern Nyanza from Homa Bay County, Nyamira and Migori go for treatment. That Governor is being distracted by the Chairperson of CIC who has chosen to be a fundraiser, instead of reading his law and leading the country. I am worried the Governor is being moved from executing those county government functions to fundraising. In as much as the Ethics and Anti Corruption Commission finds it within its mandate to write to the Assembly of these hon. Members about fundraising, I think some of these letters 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."
}