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{
    "id": 617598,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/617598/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 48,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. Abongotum",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 165,
        "legal_name": "Asman Abongutum Kamama",
        "slug": "asman-kamama"
    },
    "content": "Thank you very much, Hon. Speaker. I welcome the Petition by the former military officer from Kericho. As the interim chairperson of the Boresha Katiba Parliamentary Initiative, I wish to inform Members that we have done a lot. We have written to you as a caucus of over 185 Members of Parliament. We have met experts that have looked at this matter and we have discovered that over 80 per cent of what we want amended can be done in this House through parliamentary initiative. I want to remind Members that when we were doing the last amendments for the Constitution, we had a lot of sycophancy. We had over 300 amendments but we could not do it in this House. We tried to effect the amendments at the then Kenya Institute of Administration (KIA), but the same sycophancy prevailed. We tried in Naivasha but we could not manage. So, this House was bypassed. This included a situation where Hon. Musila wanted to protect our salaries but could not. The judges managed to protect their salaries while Members of Parliament could not do it. However, let me forget about the issue of salaries because it is not part of what we are discussing. If we amend this Constitution through parliamentary initiative, we are going to save this country close to Kshs30 billion. We all know what happened in 2005. The momentum that prevailed led to what we experienced in 2008. So, let us do what we can in this House and then what is supposed to go to a referendum, let us consider taking it to a referendum during the elections of 2017 and have it as ballot No.7. This has been done elsewhere, even in America which can vote for over 22 positions. So, seven ballots are not too many. Hon. Speaker, I am yet to convince Members and agree with the Leader of the Majority Party that Boresha Katiba Parliamentary Initiative is on course and the amendments are ready any time. We will table them in this House. We are also ready to meet Hon. Chepkong’a’s Committee to discuss these issues. So, we are ready to amend this Constitution through a 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."
}