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{
    "id": 579993,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/579993/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 124,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. (Ms.) Odhiambo-Mabona",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 376,
        "legal_name": "Millie Grace Akoth Odhiambo Mabona",
        "slug": "millie-odhiambo-mabona"
    },
    "content": "One of the other issues that we must look at in tandem with this is the issue of public participation. Now that we have extended the one year period, I am hoping that within that one year period, we must bring to this Parliament a Bill, which is five years in the making, that guides public participation. I want to speak to this in relation to the unfortunate incident that happened in this House when there was a disagreement between women who wanted to present their views and my good friend Hon. T.J. Kajwang’, who was presiding. I know that the women were very well intentioned but because they were not given guidelines, they may have appeared to have gone overboard. In order for us to be clear, we must give clear guidelines to members of the public who want to appear before Parliament in terms of how they dress and address Parliament, so that when they come here, are unruly and are thrown out, they must have had that information prior, so that we do not have the excuse that they were not informed and they did not know. They were not informed but for those of us who are in Parliament, we know that there are certain standards that must be adhered to, which they were not aware of. Looking at the definition of staff of Parliament, there is a critical element of support staff of Parliament that is permanently excluded. That includes the staff that serves MPs. It is a crying shame for us as MPs to have our staff having their salaries delayed, every now and then, when we have our own salaries. It is one of those unspoken issues that most of us do not want to speak about. As I speak, many of our staff have not been paid for this month. They have rents and salaries to pay. They would not understand. They would think that we are the ones who are obligated to pay them. It is not right. If we are to talk about our own privileges, they must start by protecting the privileges of those who serve us even as we serve others. Staff of Parliament should be defined to include, even if it is under different terms of service, those who serve us as drivers, personal assistants and other categories because they serve the Parliament of Kenya. I will be bringing several other amendments but for now, I will just limit my contribution. I want us to look at how we define Parliament. This is a minor one. We have made reference to the definition in the Constitution. Just for clarity, a lot of people think that Parliament is just the National Assembly when Parliament is both the National Assembly and the Senate. For avoidance of doubt, we should define Parliament as the National Assembly and the Senate. I will stop there. I will push the rest of the issues that I want to comment on as I bring my amendments. I support the Bill."
}