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"speaker_name": "Sen. Musila",
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"content": "Thank you, Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, for the opportunity to contribute to this important Bill which I support. Let me, first of all, congratulate Sen. Murungi for bringing this Bill to the House. As we are all aware, he is a man of immense experience having been a lawyer for many years. We, therefore, respect him and support his work. Let me also acknowledge with a lot of humility, the kind comments made to me by my friend, Sen. Karaba, the Senator for Kirinyaga County. This House nominated three Senators; that is, Sen. Mugo and Sen. Leshore and I, to serve in the PSC. The three of us have served this House with a lot of distinction. Of course, we have had to fight a lot of challenges. But overall, I think that we have made a lot of progress. I am also aware that there is another Bill, the Parliamentary Service (Amendment) Bill, which is actually amending the original Bill, which has been submitted or published for the National Assembly. It is meant to amend the original Act to bring it in line with the changes that we are all talking about with regards to the bicameral Parliament. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, looking through the proposed amendments, particularly the functions of the two committees, I find them to be in order as they will be further strengthening the services that the members of these two Houses need. However, with a lot of humility, I want to say as follows, first, Members have raised many issues. I think that one of the biggest problems that we have as Commissioners and as I had already told the Kamukunji this morning that having discussed with the Vice Chairperson, Sen. Mugo, is that I think as a PSC, we have lacked in passing information to the people who nominated us to those positions. I said this morning that, in future, we will be providing information as frequently as possible to our Members, because we owe it to them and they are the ones who nominated. They should also be in the know. I say this because yesterday I listened to some contributions which in a way – and I say this with a lot of humility – felt like some hon. Senators were not appreciating the work that has already been done by the PSC. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, first, on the issue of facilitation, you recall that when you Chaired a RBC meeting, you were given the responsibility of forming a subcommittee to do a paper and make proposals to the PSC on ways and means of improving the facilitation that is given to the Senators. You know that we executed those recommendations to the best of our knowledge. However, we met a lot of challenges. One, the issue of salaries and allowances falls completely out of the purview of the PSC. In the past, the PSC would sit, determine the remuneration and recommend the Treasury. However, the past PSCs had the power to decide on the remunerations and allowances. Now, the Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC) is the sole Constitutional Commission that has been charged with that responsibility. I do not want Members to 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."
}