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{
    "id": 654080,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/654080/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 22,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. Ababu",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 108,
        "legal_name": "Ababu Tawfiq Pius Namwamba",
        "slug": "ababu-namwamba"
    },
    "content": "Article 95(1) and (2) of the Constitution says that the National Assembly represents the people of the constituencies and special interests. It adds that the National Assembly deliberates on and resolves issues of concern to the people, respectively. Hon. Deputy Speaker, when those two Articles are read together, Article 1 talks about the residual sovereignty of this nation as being the people of this country. That is an Article that is express and without equivocation. When read together with Article 95, it clearly says that we sit here to represent others and not ourselves. I do not sit here to represent Ababu Namwamba, but the people of the commonwealth of the constituency of Budalangi. In the capacity to represent the people, I can be lobbied, pushed or intimidated by those people. Lobbying of any nature or complexion is an established tradition in all democracies. People lobby. They use all means to influence the course of legislation. In the USA, a country that is often used as a citadel of democracy, there are some very powerful lobbies like the gun lobby, the lobby that believes it is the inherent constitutional right of the American people to bear guns. It is a very powerful lobby. It uses all sorts of mechanisms and means to lobby the Senate and Congress not to interfere with the right to bear arms in the USA. The message my honourable colleague from Rarieda has just read to us from FIDA- Kenya is, by any stretch of imagination, pure lobbying. Listen to that message and there is absolutely nothing unless you want to stretch the limits of the definition of “intimidation” or “harassment” beyond the known and defined meaning as we understand in the ordinary English language. Let us not make attempts to poison the atmosphere in this House in a bid to encumber a process that is at the very heart of the full implementation of our new constitutional order. The Bill that we are preparing to vote on is a long delayed responsibility of this House. I want to tell my male colleagues in this House that higher representation of women in this House takes away absolutely nothing from them. In fact, it enhances the quality of representation in this House. When President Barack Obama visited this country last year, he 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."
}