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"id": 577572,
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"content": "(iii) shall not be called for Second Reading in either House within 90 days after the First Reading of the Bill in that House and, (iv) Shall have been passed by Parliament when each House of Parliament has passed the Bill, in both its Second and Third Readings, by not less than two-thirds of all the Members of that House. (2) Parliament shall publicise any Bill to amend this Constitution, and facilitate public discussion about the Bill. (3) After Parliament passes a Bill to amend this Constitution, the Speakers of the two Houses of Parliament shall jointly submit to the President, (i) the Bill for assent and publication, and, (ii) a certificate that the Bill has been passed by Parliament in accordance with this Article. (4) Subject to Clause (5), the President shall assent to the Bill, and cause it to be published, within thirty days after the Bill is enacted by Parliament.” Hon. Members, it must be noted from the foregoing that the Constitution sets out a distinct procedure for the consideration and passage of Bills to amend the Constitution, different from that prescribed for ordinary legislation. First, and with regard to amendments through parliamentary initiative, such a Bill is not to address any other matter apart from consequential amendments to legislation arising from it. Secondly, the Bill cannot be read for a Second Time until at least 90 days have lapsed since its First Reading, to allow for public discussion on its contents. Thirdly, the Bill requires passage by not less than two-thirds majority in both Houses of Parliament, at both its Second and Third Readings. Lastly, the Bill is to be assented into law within 30 days of its passage. This process deliberately excludes additional processes such as concurrence between the two Speakers on whether the Bill concerns counties, use of the mediation committees to harmonise differing views between the Houses, and reservations by the President to the content of such a Bill. Hon. Members, from the foregoing, nothing would have been easier for the framers of our Constitution than expressly importing into, or at the very least referencing, the amendment procedure applicable to ordinary legislation under Articles 109-123 of the Constitution, into the framework provided under Article 256. Articles 3 and 10 of the Constitution, and Standing Order No. 47(3), oblige the Speaker to respect, uphold and defend the Constitution of the Republic. I am guided by this particular duty in my considered opinion that the provisions of Article 256 of the Constitution are worded deliberately. As was well noted by the Hon. Member for Ainabkoi, the Hon. Chepkong’a, the former Constitution of Kenya imposed explicit limits on the nature of interventions that the House could make with regard to the content of a Bill to amend the Constitution. If you can recall, Section 47 (4) of the former Constitution provided as follows, and I quote:- “When a Bill for an Act of Parliament to alter this Constitution has been introduced into the National Assembly, no alterations shall be made in it before it is presented to the President for his assent, except alterations which are certified by the Speaker to be necessary because of the time that has elapsed since the Bill was first introduced into the Assembly”. The only change that could be made to a Bill to amend the Constitution at that time, was corrections to references related to time and dates, and such change could be made only upon certification of the necessary changes by the Speaker. The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor."
}