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{
    "id": 759952,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/759952/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 43,
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    "speaker_name": "",
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    "speaker": null,
    "content": "As the Senate of the Republic of Kenya, we now have an opportunity to look at the Bill as was sent from the National Assembly and make a determination as to whether what the National Assembly has gone through and given to this House suffices to fill the gap in the law. If not, what else can the Senate do to fill the lacuna created by the situation we are in? Mr. Speaker, Sir, that is why we are accommodating this Bill from the National Assembly. There was a similar Bill that was tabled in this House and a Committee was formed. Generally, the Senate will make a decision on how to treat this Bill. However, as we speak, we have a different Motion that comes from the National Assembly that mandates us to deal with this Bill. The Committee that has been established has a fantastic opportunity because the composition of its membership is the same with that of the select Committee that we had formed. They sat through public participation in a joint manner with a National Assembly Committee and have, therefore, views of Kenyans, but nothing stops them from accommodating more views. The report that was adopted by the select Committee has been returned to this House, richer and more informed. Mr. Speaker, Sir, there is a new decision that came this morning and debate is going on in the country. This is healthy for the nation, except that I still insist that the minority side should provide their membership to this Committee. We take seriously participation of all shades of opinions in this nation. Although the majority side as it sits here has proposed five people, we are waiting for the minority side to propose five people; to rescind the letter they wrote to you that they will not participate in Committees and business of this House. History will judge the minority side so harshly; that at a point and a most critical time when Parliament was required to pronounce itself on a very important matter of national importance, the minority side ran away from responsibility. The minority side have threatened that when all this process of law has gone through, they will rush to the courts to injunct the law from being applied and declare it unconstitutional. It is perceived that they will run away from it because they never participated. Mr. Speaker, Sir, for the record, today the Senator for Narok is sitting here, listening and so is the Senator for Turkana. However, the Senator for Bungoma who happens to be your Senator was here, quickly inserted his card and “ran” away. It must be known to the nation that it is a lie for anyone to say that the Jubilee Coalition forced laws on anybody in this Republic because we have no capacity to force anybody to accept a certain position. It must go on record that there is an abdication of duty by the minority side whose responsibility in this House was to continue to provide the representation that was given by their people in the different constituencies. I hope when that time comes, the judge will be faced with the situation whether there was a possibility that a law was done by one side of a House. That is not possible because the democratic right of every citizen so to speak, is also a constitutional right. The right not to also participate in law making is a constitutional right of the minority side. If the citizens who voted them were serious enough, they would take it as a serious breach of trust between the elected leaders from the minority side and those of us who are at the majority side. If those citizens that voted them were serious enough, they would invoke the doctrine of social contract to demand that the relationship must be severed"
}