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{
    "id": 572014,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/572014/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 315,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. M. Kajwang",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13162,
        "legal_name": "Moses Otieno Kajwang'",
        "slug": "moses-otieno-kajwang"
    },
    "content": "Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, I rise to support this Bill because its intention is straightforward. It is to repeal the National Assembly Powers and Privileges Act which is outdated because of the bicameral nature of Parliament. Parliamentary privilege is a feature of democracy. There is the Westminster model and the French model. This is something that can be misunderstood, that we, the MPs, are making ourselves more special than we already are. I want to assure the nation that parliamentary privilege is an important feature of democracy because it protects the people who are elected to represent the common man; it allows and gives them a voice so that they can avoid being intimidated by the executive. In fact, parliamentary privilege does not create an elite but it protects the people from the elite. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, the history of parliamentary privilege is well documented and we have seen, in some countries like South Africa, that during the Apartheid regime, some of the people who fought against segregation and apartheid, used parliamentary privilege to talk about some of the things that they could not talk about openly outside, because if they did, they would be arrested summarily. The effect of that was that the media was allowed to report anything that was spoken in Parliament. Through that, the freedom fighters in countries like South Africa took advantage of parliamentary privilege to say things and change an obscene system that put blacks at the bottom of the economic, social and political pyramid. Therefore, parliamentary privilege is a good thing and when we talk about this Bill, it is not that we are trying to “fatten” the already “fattened” Members of Parliament. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, President Obama is coming to Kenya in a few days and there has been a lot of debate as to why he will not address a Joint Sitting of Parliament---"
}