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{
    "id": 502331,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/502331/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 163,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Ongoro",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 125,
        "legal_name": "Elizabeth Ongoro Masha",
        "slug": "elizabeth-ongoro"
    },
    "content": "Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I also stand to support this Motion. Let me start by saying that if you take into account the fact that seven out of ten Kenyans, voted for this Constitution. If you read through the Constitution, the central theme that runs through it is devolution. So, it is right to refer to devolution as the spirit of the Constitution. When we came to the Senate and started experiencing teething problems, I took them for granted. I do not think I want to state like that now. These include lack of offices, the continued reversal by the Judiciary of all major decisions by the Senate – the first one I took it for grated; but this is one too many, it is telling. When the first Bill was assented to without due process being followed, again, I thought that was a very bad oversight but 46 Bills later, this is really telling. In my opinion, I see a calculated attempt to weaken the Senate and by extension remove a key pillar that supports devolution and by extension killing it. Unfortunately, for those who are orchestrating this, they did not realise that by killing devolution through attempting to kill the Senate, they are actually directly attacking the Jubilee Government. I do not want to believe that all the leadership of the National Assembly including the Speaker and the official advisor of the President, the Attorney-General and the not so many unofficial advisors of the President that all of them either do not understand, have not read or do not really take into account the implications of this oversight. I do not believe so. This is a very silent and salient attempt by those who are supposed to be advising the President. They are calculating the misadvise, they have not weighed their options and they do not know the implications and do not think we are going to sit and allow them. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, let me just start appreciating the tolerance and the character exhibited by individual Senators and the Senate collectively. We have been patient, acted with a lot of decorum, even now we are just doing what we need to do by going to the courts. However, nobody should think that this tyranny of brains in the Senate will take anything lying down. If something happened to the first Senate, I do not want to comment how and why it happened but, definitely, that will not repeat itself. By attacking the spirit of the Constitution, which is devolution, you are actually trying to rubbish that same Constitution thereby hitting at the core of what Kenyans now hold in high esteem and overlooking the supremacy of the Constitution. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, our Speaker Hon. Ethuro, has shown leadership in this matter and on this one matter, I want to appreciate the strength of character that has been 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."
}