Entry Instance

HTTP 200 OK
Allow: GET, PUT, PATCH, DELETE, HEAD, OPTIONS
Content-Type: application/json
Vary: Accept

{
    "id": 618358,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/618358/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 150,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. A.B. Duale",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 15,
        "legal_name": "Aden Bare Duale",
        "slug": "aden-duale"
    },
    "content": "Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, I beg to move that sessional papers should be given five minutes. Before you cut me short, I was saying that Standing Orders give coalitions powers to send their Members out of committees of this House. Yesterday, you were not in the House. Three committee members were replaced by our colleagues but no reason was given why that was done. I am a leader and I talk to people. Yesterday’s changes were made because of other parameters, the details of which I do not want to go into. We must develop a culture of tolerance. As much as we are from different political parties, we represent constituencies. What happened to Hon. Washiali can happen to me some other day. We have been given powers to legislate under the Constitution. A time will come when you will have to strike a balance between the interests of your constituents and the interests of the political coalition you belong to. As leaders, we must balance and note the interests with the highest premium. From where I sit, I have to balance between the interests of the many voters that brought me to this House and the interests of the coalition that I represent as the Leader of the Majority Party. I want to go on record as saying that the interests of the people of Garissa Township supersede any other interest. We should not play with this matter; it is not a cup of tea. Some of us are leaders in our respective parties. This happened in the 10th and 11th Parliaments. In all our respective parties, we must know that what happens to a colleague today can happen to you tomorrow. Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, I might be the Leader of the Majority Party today, but tomorrow I may not. That is the only issue I wanted to raise. I have been here since morning and it has become a hot debate. If approval of a Member to a Committee is through the plenary, then I am sure that once an amendment is proposed, the removal of the Member should also be through the plenary. Your colleagues can then go ahead and state that you have violated the following rules and we are convinced that you do not serve the interests of the coalition you belong to. For now, unless the Standing Orders are amended, the leadership of the various coalitions has the right to remove a Member from any Committee. In my capacity, I want to confirm that you can disagree with Jubilee fundamentally, but because we believe in tolerance and democracy, we will not remove any of our Members from any Committee. We will not touch them. We want the voters to deal with them. I beg to move. I ask Hon. Dan Maanzo to second."
}