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{
    "id": 582604,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/582604/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 396,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. Katoo",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 199,
        "legal_name": "Judah Katoo Ole-Metito",
        "slug": "judah-ole-metito"
    },
    "content": "Thank you so much, Hon. Deputy Speaker. I also want to add my voice to this Adjournment Motion. First of all, I congratulate the National Assembly because within the one month we have been here, I have seen Members coming together to debate and vote on four constitutional Bills. That is amazing. It is a great achievement. It is always said that getting two-thirds majority is not easy. However, because of concerted efforts and the bipartisan way this House has been conducting its business, we were able to garner two-thirds majority on four constitutional Bills in a day. That tells us that the 20 per cent of the Constitution that Kenyans said needed to be refined, can be done. If we put our political differences and affiliations aside, we can garner the two-thirds majority to refine our Constitution for the benefit of our citizens. We have also had a challenge in this short time of one month we have been here. That is the challenge of how to pay our teachers their long overdue salaries that have accumulated due to so many unfulfilled agreements, arising from the court ruling. This is a law-abiding country. Now that the budget-making process is in the purview of this House, we should rise to the occasion when we come back and try to look for ways to respect and abide by that court ruling. We need to look for ways of getting the money for our teachers to avert the year in, year out strikes that interrupt our education calendar. In that regard, I appeal to the teaching fraternity at large to be patient. Schools are opening on Monday and this House is going on recess today. Therefore, they should be a little bit patient and wait for the one month break to end. Budget- making is now a responsibility of this House. When we come back, as a House, we should really look for ways of bringing a supplementary budget and see which project can be dropped and re-allocate our funding priorities. This is because the ruling came a little bit late when the budget- making had already been done by this House. That is a very big challenge. I also plead with my colleagues that, as we go for this one month recess, we should really politic less. If we do the politics, let us do the politics of uniting this country. Cohesion and unity are very important for this country because any time we are on recess political temperatures tend to go up. I plead with my colleagues that let us talk on development issues and things that will not divide Kenyans and which will bring this country together. If we tone down our political anecdotes a bit and with the goodwill we have had from our development partners, especially with the just concluded visit of the President of the United States of America (USA), I am sure we are going to unite this country and the economic trajectories, especially the tourism industry, will pick up. We are in the dry period, especially in the pastoral areas. It is really dry this time. So, I plead with the Government to look into re-organising the grazing zones and also provide relief food for those people. With those few remarks, I support this Motion."
}