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{
    "id": 596120,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/596120/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 149,
    "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": "However, what we have before us, which we are debating, is not the Report of the Departmental Committee on Justice and Legal Affairs but this Bill. For me, the Bill in its current form does not meet constitutional standards and I would not be keen to support it. As a country, there is growing concern for some of us who are very committed to constitutionalism and protection of human rights, that there is a growing culture of disregard of constitutionalism. Part of it is through Executive action and another part is through legislative action. The most dangerous path through legislative action is through the Statute Law (Miscellaneous Amendments) Bill. If you look at some of the provisions in this Bill, you will find that they are drawing back on the gains that we have made in the Constitution. If you want to amend the Constitution, the Constitution is very clear on the process that we should follow. Many people died while fighting for liberation of this country and many people struggled to make sure that we have a new Constitution. Some of us spent countless days agitating both outside and within Parliament so that we could have a new constitutional dispensation. We are not going to sit back and allow this process that Kenyans worked very hard for to be taken back through simple miscellaneous amendments. Some of the things that we are proposing would even require a referendum while others would require a two-thirds majority of Parliament. We cannot do this sort of thing. I have said this before, but I am going to take it up seriously, that I am going to propose a miscellaneous amendment Bill that will set out how many pieces of legislation should come to Parliament as miscellaneous amendments and public participation in that process. Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, if you look at the Bills that we have under this Statute Law (Miscellaneous Amendments) Bill, you will find that there are not less than 32 pieces. If you look at the various topics that they are dealing with, you will find that they are diverse namely, environmental, land and all manner of things. Ideally, they should go through several parliamentary committees. From what I have heard, it sounds like it is only the Departmental Committee on Justice and Legal Affairs that has filed a report. In terms of some of the issues that are here, the Justice and Legal Affairs Committee would be the competent body to deal with them. The Bills that are here should go to the various committees. We need to come up with a law that states how miscellaneous Bills should be brought to this House. Even though I would like to say that this has improved if you compare to the other Bills that have come under the Statute Law (Miscellaneous Amendments) Bills. The others have been exceedingly huge but this Bill is still big. We have various roles as Member of Parliament namely representative, legislative and oversight. By the time you do your representative and oversight roles, especially for those of us who come from very far like Mbita--- I am only able to get here either on Monday afternoon or Tuesday morning and we spare little time to look at the Bills that are before this House. We cannot do that if we have 32 pieces of legislation to look at. Some of us want to deal with matters in this House seriously. Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, we were with you in the last Parliament and I have always taken my legislative work seriously, but we cannot take it seriously if we have 32 pieces of legislation in one Bill. One of the issues that are of concern to me is what people have spoken about especially an attempt to take back the powers of the IPOA. When we passed the Constitution, we were very clear on how rogue our police was then. There has been a lot of improvement since then but there is still room for further improvement. The improvement has been occasioned by the fact 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."
}