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"id": 592438,
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"content": "receive from many quarters within and without Parliament. We have been called all manner of names. There have been deliberate attempts to curtail any opportunity that may arise to make the Senate stronger. You cannot talk about the Senate without looking at comparable jurisdictions. Look at the structure of the Upper House in America, Canada, Australia, the United Kingdom (UK) and everywhere. Those who created and structured this Senate forgot to give it adequate clothing and capacity to be what it ought to be. Hence the profound duty by none other than the Senate itself to start a process which is not self-serving, not selfish, not to besmirch anybody, but a process that posterity will judge this current House favourably As those who spoke before me, including, the distinguished Senator for Homa Bay, said; this is the House where the equality of counties is demonstrated. The distinguished Senator for Nairobi who represents a county with a population of close to five million people and the distinguished Senator for Lamu who represents a county with just about 100,000 people, have an equal vote. The Senator for Nairobi with 17 National Assembly constituencies and the Senator for Lamu with two National Assembly constituencies have an equal vote. When they come here, they are a delegation. Each county has a delegation that is equal to the other. That is a very good start for the country. There are variables in the manner in which counties are allocated resources taking into account the criteria of population, poverty index, levels of marginalization and neglect through the years and so on. However, when it comes to casting a vote to approve or disapprove any issue, Lamu and Nairobi have equal strength. That is very important to the extent that when any county issue is to be canvassed, prosecuted and agitated on this Floor, every head of delegation does so with full awareness that there is no superior county, no veto held by any county. There is no county that can hold sway on the Floor of this House other than by convincing every delegation to see things the way you see them. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, that is why you may have noted, and I know you do, that in this House, apart from a few excesses and irritations that we see from time to time on partisan issues, this House has largely been operating in a bipartisan manner. Issues are looked at differently. I have never heard of the obscenity of tyranny of numbers in this House. Indeed, there is no possibility of tyranny of numbers when we have equality of delegations. Therefore, neither the Jubilee side, nor the CORD side, that I lead, can stand on its own in this House and win any vote. We have to bargain with each other. The Senators realised this very early; I salute and congratulate them. In every aspect of our work we need each other. Now is the time that this Senate needs itself. The Senators and delegations need each other more than ever before. Mr. Temporary Speaker, if you watched a film called The Verdict, starring Paul Newman, you can recall when Paul Newman was speaking as a lawyer preparing to go to court to argue a case and he said there is no other case, this is the case. For this House, I dare say this is the case. The case to convince Kenyans, our colleagues in the National Assembly, ourselves and county assemblies that the protector and defender of counties and their governments under Article 96 of the Constitution, needs to be capacitated to defend and protect counties and their governments properly, adequately and satisfactorily. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, the proposals made are very important. Participation in budget-making is critical. We have 48 dependent and interdependent governments in Kenya. Those 47 governments have rights, responsibilities and privileges enshrined in the Constitution. 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."
}