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{
    "id": 772629,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/772629/?format=api",
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    "content": "towed the official vehicle assigned to me, and which I had not seen, at the precints of Parliament--- Mr. Speaker, Sir, I have not heard any communication from you or any person protesting this violation. It is a violation of Parliament. If you do not stand for us, history will judge you so harshly you will remember this young man from Makueni County telling you: “You must defend this place.” This is the place we have been given by law. No other Kenyan enjoys such privileges; not the military nor the Executive or the Presidency. Nobody should violate the precints of Parliament; it is not the act of taking the vehicle but the violation of the precints. I do not need the vehicle since I have one, but what are they saying about this House? History recorded the last Speaker, Hon. Ekwee Ethuro. He got police officers out of Parliament Road when they barricaded us and we could not access these premises. I am counting on you to be able to defend this House; otherwise this Senate will become just another House. We are actually what Sen. Sakaja says: “The Upper House with lower powers.” Those are the words he uses. The other one is the “Lower House” with higher privileges or something like that. I feel sad. Mr. Speaker, Sir, lastly, I defended one gentleman called Mahamud Muhumed Sirat. That gentleman, one Sunday morning was arrested by Kenya Police, in their usual style, and taken to the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) with a deportation order to go to Australia. That gentleman ended up being the Member of Parliament for Wajir South Constituency after a long court process. The Chairpersons of Senate Committees, whom we have given the privilege to lead us, when they do not speak about some of these issues, they are neglecting their duty as people we nominated as Chairpersons, for example, the Chairprson of the Committee on Legal Affairs and Foreign Relations. When media houses are shut down for a week, for whatever reason, and I can see the Deputy Chairperson here, we must speak. Sen. Orengo was right that Sen. Murkomen, other Senators and I have a draft. The draft is here which, amongst other things, proposes that the allocation to counties must be 40 per cent. That is not an agenda for Makueni County, but for the 47 counties. We must adopt a bipartisan approach to some of these issues because that will help this country. The reason fire fighting trucks go to Kibera and run out of water is something we must speak to as the Senate. It is not Senator Sakaja’s issue, it is for us and somebody must say that Nairobi City County should be treated better. When the national Government through the National Treasury released funds to a few counties, somebody should have said something. We have not said anything. We have remained quiet, we are happy, somebody will take that space and it will either be the media or Mr. Okiya Omtata. I will sit in the Senate Business Committee, but sometimes I will disagree with this Committee. If we cannot make a difference by making sure the work that Kenyans send us to do here, which is pass Bills to protect counties, and we are not treated as lower citizens by our colleagues in the “Lower House”, then there will be no value in sitting in that Committee. Thank you, Mr. Speaker, Sir."
}