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{
    "id": 704314,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/704314/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 212,
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    "content": "distribution of food and encourage food production in the country to ensure that no Kenyan dies for lack of food and would sort out the endless circles of hunger and famine that we witness almost every year in this country. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, it is sad that petty competition between our brothers in the other House and ours has made it impossible for that Bill to see the light of day. Kenyans are dying while we are dancing on the graves of those people. It is a shame that the august House of Parliament can behave dishonorably. When a Bill comes from the other House, the Senate Majority Leader is the first to tell us we give it priority. Even in the House Business Committee where we sit, he says let us give the Bills from the other House priority but our Bills are put in cold storage immediately they are seen for one reason or another. What happens in the courts, I know we have a good new Chief Justice but there are issues there. If you filed a case today, we might go home before the case is heard. We need to think of political action that we can take to ensure the Bills passed by this House have been disposed of in one way or another by the National Assembly. We are not asking them to be passed but we are asking them to deal with them and be disposed of. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I want to suggest that as a House, we create our space and say we are not going to pass any Bill coming from the National Assembly unless they clear all the backlog or Bills that are pending in their House that come from this House. We are in a political contest, we are politicians and there is political self-help that can undertake as Senators. Otherwise, if we become gentlemen and ladies dealing with people who are not – we are not going to get anywhere. I can give you an example of what happened to us last week in the Senate Oversight Fund Committee. We passed the rules here which had been published and the Public Finance Management Act. The money is with Parliamentary Service Commission (PCS). We are not asking for the money from the national Treasury. The national Treasury has already given the money and it is with PSC. What we have been trying all the while is to try to develop rules of procedure for the Senate to access this money from the PSC which is supposed to empower Members of Parliament including Senators in the performance of their work. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, we discussed those rules with the Committee onDelegated Legislation of the National Assembly and requested that issues with rules published under PFM Act saying we should go back to national Treasury, we mutually agreed that those rules should be withdrawn and we re-publish new rules which were agreed on between our Committee and the Committee of the Delegated Legislation of the National Assembly. We read those rule clause by clause and there was consensus. They said they had no issues. It is on that basis that the rules were published. The Speaker of the National Assembly is the one who signed those rules. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, it was strange that after the rules were published and laid before our House and the National Assembly, our House passed the rules. The Statute Instruments Act says once the committee passes the rules, they do not come to the Floor; they go to the rule making authority. So, they communicated the consent of our committee to the PSC. The Committee of the National Assembly decided to annul the rules on the basis that they are in conflict with the PFM Act. That was dishonest and dishonourable because it was a matter we had agreed on before. The rules were not published at the PSC. So, unless this House puts its foot down, this “criminal behaviour” 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"
}