Entry Instance

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

{
    "id": 493356,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/493356/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 57,
    "type": "other",
    "speaker_name": "",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "researched on, set aside time for oral questions to the government. The study also revealed that regular question time is rare among countries with a presidential system, but it does occur. For example, in Philippines, which is a pure presidential system, Members of the House of Representatives put questions to the Executive Branch who appear in the House to answer questions. Indeed, Section 22 of Article VI of the Constitution of Philippines states that the Heads of Departments, which in this case means the Cabinet Secretaries, shall attend the House and answer questions when requested by the House. In our own case, Article 153(3) requires Cabinet Secretaries to attend before a Committee of the House and answer any question concerning a matter for which a Cabinet Secretary is responsible. In the last two sessions of Parliament, Members have had to seek answers and information on matters affecting their respective constituencies through Statements which required Committees to interact with the Cabinet Secretaries and respond to Members’ queries in the House. As we are all aware, this method presented its own challenges, including the Leader of Majority Party and Chairpersons of Committees appearing to be holding brief for the Executive while responding to request for Statements yet the Executive and the Legislature are delinked. This was further compounded by the fact that the Chairpersons should offer leadership when their respective Departmental Committees are carrying out their oversight role on the Executive. The worst scenario was when the Deputy Minority Whip, who also happens to be a member of a Committee, responded to a Statement in the House calling to question the use of Statements for holding the Executive accountable when even the minority were responding on behalf of the Executive. It was also found out that majority of the Departmental Committees were spending most of their time seeking information and responding to Statements instead of focusing on the cardinal legislative matters under their mandate in the new Constitution, like Budget scrutiny and introduction and review of Bills. The Procedure and House Rules Committee, aware that holding the Executive to account using questions is the practice the world over, whether in parliamentary or presidential system, therefore, proposed the amendments of the Standing Orders to do away with the Statements and created the Committee on General Oversight to actualize provisions of Article 153(3) of the Constitution. Whereas the formation of the Committee is within the provisions of the Constitution, there have been concerns from several quarters that the operation of the Committee might infringe on the doctrine of the separation of powers and, in particular, provisions of Article 153(2) which provides that the Cabinet Secretaries are accountable individually and collectively to the President for the exercise of their powers and the performance of their functions. Indeed, His Excellency the President, has in his Communication to the Speaker, raised this particular concern and I quote: “The framers of the Kenyan Constitution adopted the principle of separation of powers and in presidential systems, a strict separation is often a fundamental constitutional principle. In rare instances would such a system encapsulate “question time” in appreciation of the distinct separation whose fabric runs through the entire system of government.” In conclusion, the President states thus:- 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."
}