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{
    "id": 745874,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/745874/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 255,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. Okoth",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 12482,
        "legal_name": "Kenneth Odhiambo Okoth",
        "slug": "kenneth-odhiambo-okoth"
    },
    "content": "Hon. Chairlady, I think what is going on here is a little bit sad and we must call it for what it is. Hon. Aghostinho drafted the Bill, has engaged the Committee and the language is already in there. This language is the heart of the matter, when you talk about the rights of refugees and refugee status determination. We must for a moment ask ourselves: Would we want these rights and duties accorded to Kenyan refugees in a foreign country? Let us answer yes or no. We are saying refugees in Kenya should be denied these rights and we are saying let us leave them to a Cabinet Secretary (CS) to make subsidiary legislation later. This is the heart of the matter here. It is not anything else. It is like if you go to ask for a chicken salad. A chicken salad must have chicken in it. A refugee Bill must have the rights of refugees in it. You cannot have a chicken salad without the chicken. What they are trying to tell us is that the chicken will be brought later as regulations. No, this is the heart of the matter. Let us keep it in here. It is properly written and we do not need to amend it. Let us just keep it here because if you look at the context of legislation in this country, over the last four years and even going to the previous Parliament, the Public Benefits Organisations Act has never been implemented, yet public benefits organisations are taking care of children on whether it is issues to do with shoes and jiggers to school fees to school feeding programmes to HIV/AIDS and to maternal health. Public benefits organisations are doing all these things but the CS has the power to make regulations and has refused to implement it. When you go the education sector, the Alternative Provision of Basic Education (APBET) regulations where half of the children in this country are in non-government APBET schools, the regulations are not being implemented. If you come to issues such as the environment, you find that the CS knows that Kenyans need jobs, but all of a sudden, they gazette without consultation, their own subsidiary legislation to close down industries and say they will ban plastics in 60 days. That thing cannot be allowed to happen. We are taking chances. Some of the Members are speaking here as if they are certain that they will be members of the 12th Parliament. It is as if they know who the Cabinet Secretary (CS) who will gazette these things will be in the next regime. It is not true. Let us use the full constitutional might and power of this House to make the law as it is. Let us have the discretion to allow the Mover of the Bill to, at least, have these rules because this is not the heart of the matter. You will hear the Committee saying that they engaged Hon. Agostinho. That is true. 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."
}