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{
    "id": 770177,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/770177/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 98,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. Francis Tom Joseph Kajwang’",
    "speaker_title": "The Member for Ruaraka",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 2712,
        "legal_name": "Tom Joseph Kajwang'",
        "slug": "kajwang-tom-joseph-francis"
    },
    "content": "amendments were proposed by the Majority Party Chief Whip but deliberated by Members of the entire Committee and resolutions arrived at unanimously. Hon. Speaker, I draw the attention of hon. Members to the Order Paper. You will see summarised forms of the proposed amendments in your Order Paper so that you are able to follow. I will briefly touch on issues of principles. I may not touch on the exact wording of the amendments proposed in the Standing Orders but you can follow me with your revised Standing Orders, which happen to be the 3rd edition, not any other edition. The issue which the House has been talking about, and which we, as the Procedure and House Rules Committee, thought we could capture is how to distribute committees across the House in a way that is impartial and meets the interests of all Members; and in a way that every Member is able to participate in the committees one way or another. This has been a fairly intimate issue amongst Members. One of the ways in which we are able to absorb all the 347 Members of this House is to expand many of these committees so that all Members, one way or another, actively find themselves participating in a committee. We have also tried to balance the committees so that there is no committee which is superior to another. Since this system runs on committees, every Member must feel equal and useful to the Chamber and all committees must have the same weight, including the committee which I hope I will Chair if I am given the opportunity – the Catering Committee. Those committees are all useful and all Members should feel equal to each other. There is a proposal to increase the membership of almost all the departmental committees and the select committees. We used to have 19 members but there are proposals to increase the membership of many of them to 23, giving us about 542 slots to share in the House. When you have 542 slots being shared amongst 347 colleagues, you then see that there should be no reason as to why any Member – whether de-whipped or not de-whipped – should not have a Committee to participate in. There are a few committees which may require two or three representations more than the rest, like the Budget and Appropriations Committee. The Budget and Appropriations Committee usually mutates into several subcommittees. There are also other committees which are very periodic, like the Committee on Selection. In fact, the Speaker’s Committee meets only once. The Procedure and House Rules Committee meets only once in five years. We have to tamper these committees. The question is, if you are in the Selection Committee or the Appointments Committee, which has only one sitting in a lifetime, why should you be said to be in one committee yet the rest are running other committees? We have weighed the activities in these committees. If, for example, you are just serving a committee which will last for seven days only, you have other committees which will last you the five years that you are in this House. Members, another thing that you find interesting, and I hope I have your attention, is that we want to have chairmen of committees responsible to their committees. When we were discussing this matter, we had a very interesting discussion; that 65 per cent of the chairmen who participated in the 11th Parliament went home because they were too busy. This Parliament runs on committees. We will always ask you and hold you accountable. We will want you to produce those minutes. We will want you to bring those reports. You will be so busy in the Chamber; you 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."
}