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{
    "id": 770208,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/770208/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 129,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. Ng’ongo",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 110,
        "legal_name": "John Mbadi Ng'ong'o",
        "slug": "john-mbadi"
    },
    "content": "about used to meet regularly. I remember there are some Members who did not really want to leave that committee although some also do not want to get to that committee. I am happy it has been re-baptised to something that cannot quickly be related to what it actually does. However, this terminology of “Lucrative Committees” sometimes surprises me. I just hope that our Members want to get to these committees to serve in the best interest of Kenyans and not with some other motives behind because you may be so disappointed when you get to these committees and realise that what you thought is not actually happening there. Hon. Speaker, I was just shocked that even with the large numbers of lawyers the NASA Coalition has, we are struggling to get membership to the Departmental Committee on Justice and Legal Affairs. Actually, I was told by my Whip that only two Members have applied to be in that committee who are even non-lawyers. And I am asking myself really… I think we should place you based on your competence in committees so that if you are a finance expert or accountant like myself, then you would be placed in the Budget and Appropriations Committee, Departmental Committee on Finance, Planning and Trade, Public Accounts Committee (PAC) or Public Investments Committee (PIC), something that is relevant to you. If you are someone with education background, then you should express interest in areas of education. However, there are so many committees where we have a challenge in placing Members like PAC, PIC and Departmental Committee on Transport, Public Works and Housing. The Departmental Committee on Transport, Public Works and Housing has also become so popular in this Parliament yet it never used to be. I do not know why. Maybe we need some research on this. However, I just want to make a plea to Members that you should also be accommodative to your leadership so that if you do not get all the committees that you want, you should realise that we are 349 Members against very limited chances that we have. In the Departmental Committee on Transport, Public Works and Housing for example, we have 45 Members who have expressed interest and probably we only have four slots for it. We will try as leaders to place Members in areas where they have shown interest but you should also understand that as you show interest, others also show interest and we have to balance other interests like regional representation. For example, in my case with the interests of my party, we also have to consider gender which is a constitutional requirement and it is in our Standing Orders and we cannot do away with it. I also want to talk about the Budget and Appropriations Committee. I can see that we have increased the number of the membership to this committee to I think a total of 27, which is 26 Members plus the chair to make a total of 27. In my view, this committee should have even had little more Members. This is because Budget and Appropriations Committee has a lot of representation in this House. You will realise that reports from the Budget and Appropriations Committee and the Bills or proposals that they look at, are like Money Bills in nature and cannot be amended easily on the Floor of the House. This is because, really, for you to amend matters that touch on taxes and expenditure you require interacting with the Executive and Treasury. Therefore, we deliberately had a heavy representation or a large number of Members going into this committee so that it is almost like the Committee of the whole House. Once they sit, and make a decision which affects operations or activities or whatever it is in this country, there is proper representation of this House. So, even 27 Members may not be sufficient. Again, I said 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."
}