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{
    "id": 497654,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/497654/?format=api",
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    "content": "Parliament’s role in this Constitution is to make laws. Now, if a Kenyan is aggrieved about what Parliament is doing, that Kenyan can wait until Parliament has made that law – however foolish that law is – then that law can be taken to the Judiciary, which will then determine – as by powers given to it by the Constitution, to decide whether that law is foolish or not. But for the Judiciary to say “a law is just being made, but we think it is foolish and, so, we will stop Parliament from making it” is completely making separation of powers foolish. In the event that Parliament is implementing its role according to the Constitution and then somebody thinks that the process of implementing that role is wrong and before a decision is made, goes to court to stop that process, that is completely unconstitutional. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I would like to propose that we have a bigger issue at hand. The issue is: To what extent are we going to bring to the level of discussion or dialogue the Judiciary which is the branch of Government that has been doing this, to discuss whether they understand the Constitution or not; whether they are interested in implementing the Constitution and whether they are interested in making sure that the principle of separation of power works in Government? How long are we going to have ad hoc c ommittee? I am not stopping it from working because any initiative can produce certain results. I believe they will have to realize that, that is the problem we are dealing with. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, another issue I want to raise here is this: The work of the Committees of this House is to make the work of the House easier. There are too many things that the House has to deal with and we cannot deal with them in plenary all the time. Which means that any Committee of the House which, in the process of doing its work, feels that they need the input of another Member of the House because of the knowledge or interest in a certain matter, then as it is provided for in the Constitution and in our Standing Orders, that committee can then invite that Member or bring it to his or her notice that “this meeting or discussion is important to you and we would like you to contribute.” In that regard, Sen. Kagwe is completely right and, indeed, that is what we have been doing in the Committee chaired by Sen. (Dr.) Khalwale and other committees, I belong to. If that process is working, then, indeed, Sen. Kagwe is right that setting up yet another committee to do similar work is over doing it. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I am sorry that I was not here early enough to move an amendment to this Motion. My proposal would have amended the Motion to say that rather than all these names proposed here, this issue is so important that we would like to request the Legal Affairs and Human Rights Committee to focus on this, expedite discussions on this and bring a report to this House within a certain period of time. Let us say two or three months. This will ensure that the issue is focused on and a report is brought to the plenary so that we can discuss it. I dare propose that when that report is made, it should propose something like this. One, that this Legal Affairs and Human Rights Committee must focus on this issue. 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."
}