Entry Instance

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

{
    "id": 572009,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/572009/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 310,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. (Eng.) Muriuki",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 2559,
        "legal_name": "Stephen Muriuki Ngare",
        "slug": "stephen-muriuki-ngare"
    },
    "content": "Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, if you allow me, I will assist you by speaking directly to Sen. (Prof.) Kindiki who I believe is taking tea in the lounge. As the Mover said, for a long time, we had only the National Assembly. After the promulgation of the new Constitution, we now have the Senate and the National Assembly. There has been confusion in and around Parliament. The fact that we now have two Speakers, two clerks and two sets of staff makes certain areas of interaction unclear. I believe that by either merging or showing the boundaries clearly, for instance, who can do what and who can be disciplined by whom, is important. The other issue is that we talked about the National Assembly so much. I believe even the people who were drafting the Constitution dropped guard. In some instances, in the Constitution, they have written National Assembly but they meant Parliament. The areas of the issues of the National Assembly can be straightened out. Countries like Nigeria had an easy way out when they had a new Constitution. They were referring to the National Assembly as Parliament for so long and they simply called their Parliament, ‘the National Assembly’ and the two houses, ‘the Senate’ and the ‘House of Representative’ and it became easy. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, we are talking about powers and privileges. This means that Members of Parliament (MPs) are free to speak their minds without looking over their shoulders to see who is listening. People are supposed to listen but MPs should be immune from some of these actions. This is the only place that Kenyans or their representatives should be allowed to say things which perhaps would be a little bit weary if said elsewhere. In Parliament, we should be covered so that we could say what we want on behalf of the people who elected us or other Kenyans. 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."
}