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{
    "id": 756524,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/756524/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 48,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. Ichung’wah",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 1835,
        "legal_name": "Anthony Kimani Ichung'Wah",
        "slug": "anthony-kimani-ichungwah"
    },
    "content": "if, during any session of Parliament, the member is absent from eight sittings of the relevant House without permission, in writing, from the Speaker, and is unable to offer a satisfactory explanation for the absence to the relevant committee.” The committee that the Constitution refers to is the Committee that you chair. It is the powers and privileges of Members of the House. The issue I am raising is related to what the Leader of the Majority Party raised because what we are seeing happened here with Hon. John Mbadi, Hon. Wanga, Hon. Simba Arati, Millie Odhiambo and many other Members of the purported coalition called NASA which is not even a parliamentary party. What they are doing is not just dishonesty to the people of Kenya – as the Leader of the Majority Party has said to their party leader. It is actually an abuse of the powers and privileges conferred on us as Members of Parliament by our Standing Orders and by the Constitution of this Republic. In his Address to this House this week, the President asked Members of this House to uphold the provisions of this Constitution and defend it. Even those Members in the NASA Coalition swore, holding either the Bible or the Holy Quran to uphold, protect and defend the provisions of this Constitution. You are not just as Chair of the PSC but as Speaker. In relation to the provisions of Article 103, it has been stated in writing that any Member who misses eight sittings without your written permission errs. If you read the provisions of Standing Order No. 260, even if a Member is outside the country, he needs to notify you in writing and give you the address of where he is or where he is going. Those provisions are clearly spelt out in Standing Order No.260. Therefore, I want you to give guidance to the House: One, as to whether there is any Member of the NASA Coalition who has written to you in your capacity as Speaker seeking for permission to be absent from this House for whatever number of sittings. Two, the dishonesty we are seeing of people coming in to just sign is just to lie to our systems. By the Supreme Court ignoring the numbers, we may not also ignore these numbers in this Chamber today. We can see what numbers are there. We have technology in this House through our Closed Circuit Television (CCTV) cameras in and outside of this Chamber to ascertain which Member was in the House. The attendance register is not just to walk into the Chamber and sign it. It is meant to make sure that you come, work and represent your people who elected you like Hon. Naicca said that he was elected by the people of Mumias West to come and represent them in the House and not to come and sign registers and walk out. I also seek your guidance as to whether you can give directions to the Clerk and the Office of the Serjeant-at-Arms to make sure that every Member who walks in to sign that register is a Member who is coming to do what he is paid for by the people of Kenya. It does not matter whether you are paid sitting allowances or not; you are earning a salary. If you are earning a salary to come and represent people in this House, you should either come and sit here or sit in the bars or wherever you want to sit and earn from the bars, but do not earn taxpayers’ money while you are not representing your people. I also want your guidance on whether you can direct the Office of the Clerk and the Office of the Serjeant-at-Arms to make sure, as much as we are yet to get the biometrics working, that attendance list is true. If that register can be moved to the Clerk’s desk or somewhere here to make sure everybody who signs is somebody who is coming to sit here and do the business that brought him or her to this House, it would be good. Nobody was sent here to represent political parties. Again, let me offer free advice to our colleagues in the NASA Coalition that when the Constitution and even our Standing Orders talk about attendance, they do not speak to attendance 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."
}