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{
    "id": 740654,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/740654/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 248,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. Baiya",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 8,
        "legal_name": "Peter Njoroge Baiya",
        "slug": "peter-baiya"
    },
    "content": "Constitution, the provision to dissolve Parliament was exclusively a preserve of the previous Constitution whose provision had been saved until the first general election. It turns out that, as we speak, the President does not have any power under this Constitution to dissolve Parliament. Even if the Chief Justice (CJ) was to notify the President, he would be acting in vain because under what constitutional provision will the President purport to dissolve Parliament when the Constitution which was in force before 2010 has already been repealed? We hope that the MPs of this Parliament or the 12th Parliament will rise to the occasion and appreciate that, notwithstanding challenges or mechanisms of implementation, there will always be a gap between what the Constitution says and what we are going to have. This will, in the course of time, put the Judiciary under clear scrutiny if it does not take the relevant mechanisms to compel either of the Houses to ensure that this Constitution is properly and fully implemented. Even then, the national Government will also make the work of MPs and those responsible for implementing the Constitution easier. Political parties also have a big role to play because they can help a lot in terms of enhancing mechanisms of implementing the Constitution. As we debate this Bill, I am sure going by the peculiar circumstances of time, this Bill may not see the light of day before the end of this Parliament. It is, therefore, incumbent upon the current and future National Assembly to appreciate its burden and responsibility of implementing constitutional principles. I know being a male-dominated National Assembly, some of us feel that we are possibly making substantial concession to allow the fair gender to also get proper and fair representation, but it behoves all of us to appreciate this. The reason why we talk about this principle is not about supporting the fair gender, but about mainstreaming gender affairs in our country where we want decisions to be made in the most objective manner. Therefore, it is imperative that the decision-making process is not substantially handicapped by discriminative exclusion of members of one gender. The main victims will not just be women, but even men, the youth and the rest of the society. This constitutional principle is not necessarily meant to help women, but the society at large. Therefore, it cannot be eliminated because it is already entrenched in the Bill of Rights and sections of the legislative processes. Until we undertake a referendum to remove it, we may not be able to eliminate it. We should not get to a point where we will abandon some of these clear fundamental human rights about non-discrimination merely because we think they should not be enforced. In the course of time, I believe if the State employs both short and long term mechanisms, it may not be necessary to have a 20 years review period of implementation because most probably, the country will have risen to the occasion and given fair treatment to all genders making it unnecessary to extend the scope of implementation of this Bill. With those few remarks, I beg to support this Bill."
}