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"speaker_name": "Sen. (Dr.) Khalwale",
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"content": "Madam Temporary Speaker, I thank the Member for that information. Equally, Sen. Wamatangi, what you are saying is true. You merely heard about it but we are the ones who did it. We learnt from the late Michael Kijana Wamalwa who taught us that what we did – which is what you are defining now – and which informed us to give you the current constituencies, was a good idea. However, the late Wamalwa said that a good idea can always yield ground to a better idea. So, maybe under this initiative, we will get a better idea. For your information, Sen. Wamatangi, in India, MPs represent millions of people in one constituency. Yet, India today is, in fact, the world’s largest and most successful democracy. Open up the horizons, you never know, we can perform better. Madam Temporary Speaker, when you look at the expected outcome in this initiative, the Motion expects that the Committee will inquire into the role of the Senate and set a clear structure of oversight over the national Government. If we do not do this, currently, the Senate as constituted, our claim that we represent counties and oversight over counties is only in our minds but on paper, we are toothless. We need to give the Senate real teeth so that the oversight that we are talking about is not reduced to some petty thing called oversight fund. No! You need to empower the Senate so that in the definition of a bicameral Parliament, this Senate is clearly an Upper House. Until you make this Senate a clear Upper House, the balance of the issues is just wishful thinking. If we become a proper Upper House, we will then do what I found in Poland when I visited the country. They have a proper bicameral system of Parliament where the Upper Chamber is a Chamber of reflection. After the Lower House has made legislation, the Upper House then reflects on it. With due respect to the younger Members of this House, I am not casting any aspersions against you. I am just saying what I see in the USA and Poland; a Senator cannot qualify for nomination to run for office unless they are 35 years and above. You are supposed to be in the age where you can reflect on issues. This is where we want to drive our country to the extent that I would see the future Senate to be one whereby people who have served as governors and they do not think they want to exit public life, when they quit office as governors for whatever reasons, they could then run as Senators. They will reflect on the experiences that they had when they were serving as governors to enrich the process. Madam Temporary Speaker, this Committee is expected to recommend to the Senate such other constitutional and legislative interventions that may be necessary to secure and safeguard the system of devolved government in the Constitution. The current situation where an MP from Kakamega County representing – for argument’s sake – Khwisero Constituency, with a population of 105,000, people thinks that he is at par with the Senator who represents that county with a population of two million people, is defective. Unless corrected, people might run the risk of being discouraged from spending hundreds of millions to win a senatorial seat and then end up being belittled by somebody who you literally campaigned for to become an MP. I, therefore, believe that this is an opportune moment. Let me conclude with one precaution; I am very worried about the support from the Jubilee side of this Committee. I am, in The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposes only. Acertified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor, Senate."
}