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"content": "“The Speaker may, on the request of a Senator, defer the putting of the question to the following day in which case the Speaker shall thereupon nominate a time at which the question shall be put.” Hon. Senators, this is a House of records. The Senate needs to be consistent in its business. I would invite all Hon. Senators to look at the proceedings of the Special Sitting of the Senate held on 15th August, 2014 at which the Senate considered the Report of the Special Committee on the proposed removal from office of Hon. Bernard Kiala, the Deputy Governor of Machakos County. This very issue arose. At that sitting, Senator Elachi, supported by the Majority side, argued that the Senate could not proceed to vote in the absence of a minimum of 24 county delegations. Senator Wetangula, with the support of many Senators from the Minority side, took the view that the quorum of the Senate is as stipulated in Article 121 of the Constitution; 15 Senators. Therefore, the Senate could proceed to take a vote so long as the quorum had been realized. It was the Senators’ position that the gentleman’s agreement in the form of the practice of requiring twenty-four county delegations to be present before a vote could be taken could not take the place of the Constitution and the law. It is evident, therefore, Hon. Senators that the shoe is now on the other foot. The wheel has turned full circle. The Minority now espouses what the Majority held to be the correct position at the sitting of 15th August, 2014, while the Majority now stands with the position of the Minority as at 15th August, 2014. Hon. Senators, fortunately, the Office of the Speaker of the Senate, as the custodian and protector of the rules of this House, does not enjoy the luxury of altering its decision according to the dictates of different circumstances where the same set of facts obtains. On that occasion, I ruled, as I do now, that the quorum of the Senate as set out in Article 121 is 15 Senators and that the Senate is, therefore, competent and able to proceed with its business so long as the minimum of 15 Senators are present in the Senate. It will be recalled that I stated that, “if we give another opportunity and do not get the numbers, then we will proceed, because we will have given sufficient notice”. As it turned out, on that occasion, the number of 24 county delegations was finally attained. ( Applause ) The upshot of this, Hon. Senators, is that it will not be necessary for the Senate to defer the consideration of the Presidential Memoranda on the two Bills until either 24 or thirty-two county delegations are present in the Senate. As long as the quorum of 15 Senators set under Article 121of the Constitution is realized at the sitting at which the Memoranda are to be considered, there would be no bar to the consideration of the Presidential Memoranda, including the taking of a vote on the Memoranda. Hon. Senators, this is as per the communication I made on 1st October, 2015. In considering the Motion on the Presidential Memoranda, I said the Senate may do one or two things; One, pursuant to Article 115(2) of the Constitution, amend the Bill in light of the President’s reservations or amend the Bill in a manner that fully accommodates the 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."
}