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{
    "id": 606270,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/606270/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 98,
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    "speaker": null,
    "content": "Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, wananchi are with us. Two weeks ago, we visited Nakuru County with the Committee on Roads and Transportation and we moved all the way through Kibunja to Olenguruone up to Kiptagich. When we made stopovers by the roadside, we could find common people telling us that they had been on radio in the morning saying that the Senate needs to be strengthened and given funds for oversight. That is a practical case. I was with Sen. Obure and that is on record. The common mwananchi is with us and it is for certain reasons that this House is devoid of the tyranny that we see in the National Assembly. This House is devoid of corruption. I sit in three committees and at no point have I seen the kind of activities and allegations that we have seen featuring in the other House when it comes to influencing committee discussions. This House is free of absurdity. You will have to do something extremely grave for me to decide to pour water on you or to hurl books at you. We do not have that kind of drama. This House is devoid of partisanship. When I listened to the contributions from my colleagues who by accident found themselves on the Jubilee side, I feel tempted to ask the leader of CORD to organize an event so that they can formally defect because I can see on certain issues, we are not partisan. That is why the population still has a lot of hope in this House. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, it is my view that somebody wants to kill institutions in this country. I remember a presentation by the Senator for Bomet when he said that civilizations eventually crumble when you start killing institutions. If you look at Kenya, we are killing the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission. In fact, we have effectively killed it. We are just trying to revive it now. There has been talk of killing the DPP because he is not doing things that are favourable to certain quarters; there has been talk of killing political parties. We have heard Members of political parties complaining that they are being carried around like potatoes in bags. We have seen a situation where now the National Assembly and the Senate are fighting and there are talks to disband the Senate on grounds that the Senate has lost its relevance. We must protect our institutions; otherwise our civilization is going to die. The Senate is a real constellation of political stars. I keep saying that I feel humbled and privileged to be in the presence of people whose combined experience – I have done some little mathematics – is more than 1,000 years, if you put together the number of years that the Members have been in leadership and in political life. That is a real constellation of stars. I am sure that someone is keen on dimming the shine and allure of this House. I want to call upon my colleagues that as we debate these matters and as we go into this discussion of the relationship between the National Assembly and the Senate, there seems to be a trap somewhere. I foresee a situation where somebody somewhere would be happy when these two Houses fight. When the National Assembly and the Senate fight, it means that people can get away with corruption. It means that insecurity can spiral and there will be nobody to talk about it. It means that absurdity will be common place. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, it is unfortunate that we called a special session to discuss this particular matter and yet just last week there was a Budget. We probably should have been addressing the issues that Sen. (Dr.) Khalwale has brought up where what was contained in the Budget changed very drastically at the end of the day. If we 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."
}