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{
    "id": 760114,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/760114/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 205,
    "type": "other",
    "speaker_name": "",
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    "speaker": null,
    "content": "The conversations I have had with them in the last few days have led me to make the submission that I make before this House today. They told me, “if it was not enough for us to vote, have our votes counted, and that there are other procedures that were supposed to have been followed before our presidential candidate of choice is to be declared, please, as our duly elected Senator, can you go back to Parliament and do what we elected you to do to ensure that when we go for a fresh round of voting, we are able to vote and our vote matters more than anything else.” Mr. Speaker, Sir, we should respect our Constitution. We are very much aware that in Article 1, there are various institutions that exercise powers that are delegated to them by the people of Kenya. One such institution is this Senate. You cannot pretend to be a democrat where on one side you support the ruling of the Supreme Court but on the other side you castigate the Members of this House for coming here to do what is dutifully theirs. From today henceforth, we must choose how we want to live in this country. Do we want to be governed by the rule of law or anarchy? I keep on hearing arguments being fronted in this House by Members of the NASA coalition just like the distinguished Senator for Kakamega when he spoke earlier on today. They tell us that if we legislate, this country shall burn. Mr. Speaker, Sir, we cannot allow that, at the threat of violence, this House retreats and ceases to transact what is rightly given to it. Some people have said that they do not want to respect the Constitution. They threaten us that there will be violence and this country will burn. We must stand up for what is right. As I support this Motion, my conscience is so ripe. I am so sure that history will be very kind to me. There are many Members of this House who are rising to make these laws because they know we are dutifully doing what is right for this country. We are guiding the nation at these very peculiar and interesting times. In the future when we look back and read our history, my children and their children will say, I am glad that our father supported these amendments because they saved this country during a very critical time. Mr. Speaker, Sir, the solution can only be found in this House. I have had very erroneous arguments being fronted by Members of the Minority that we should not be gathered in this House because Jubilee will take advantage of the tyranny of numbers, and therefore, it is foolhardy to come to this House. I wish to remind them that in December last year; we had a Select Committee like this one where we gathered as a Joint Select Committee. We listened to their views. Jubilee still had the majority even at that time but we accommodated them. Who lied to them that if they come to the House this time, we shall not listen to them? We are not fools. We are very much aware that a free and fair game is not what our competitors are looking for. They are looking for chaos and anarchy. They want to precipitate a constitutional crisis so that the international community can tell us, just like it happened in 2008, to provide for a coalition Government or something so that you can carry the country on board. I want to be clear about this. This time, nothing of the sort will happen. Mr. Speaker, Sir, in conclusion, I agree with many of the amendments that have been proposed. To show the goodwill of the Committee that had earlier on been set, there are many things that we found during our deliberations and said that we do not agree with"
}