Entry Instance

HTTP 200 OK
Allow: GET, PUT, PATCH, DELETE, HEAD, OPTIONS
Content-Type: application/json
Vary: Accept

{
    "id": 814429,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/814429/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 36,
    "type": "other",
    "speaker_name": "",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "Mr. Speaker, Sir, attempts were yesterday made to say that this House is erratic and that it is usurping power it does not have; and that it has embarked on a legislative trajectory that is totally unacceptable to the National Assembly. To begin with, what this House does in legislation is not supposed to be acceptable to the National Assembly; it is supposed to be fortified in law and in the Constitution. That is what guides this House. The drafters of this Constitution – and some of us were part of that team – were very clear when we included in Article 110(3) that no Bill can go to any House without the two Speakers concurring. Secondly, no Speaker has exclusive jurisdiction to determine the direction, description and fate of a Bill other than the two Speakers seating together and determining whether the Bill concerns counties or not. Whether it a money Bill or any other Bill, the two Speakers are obligated by the Constitution in Article 110(3), to sit together. In fact, during the last Parliament, this House said that, procedurally, a certificate of concurrence must be a designed which must be executed by both Speakers so that when such a Bill eventually goes to the President for assent, he is informed that Article 110(3) was complied with before the Bill was moved in any House. Mr. Speaker, Sir, if this House does not defend itself, it is unlikely that there will be anybody to defend it. Justice C.B Madan once said; “Jurisdiction is not given; it is grabbed.” Therefore, if we do not grab and defend our jurisdiction, it will be clawed away by people who do not believe in bicameralism. There are some colleagues in the National Assembly who, I think, sometimes run out of breath, ideas or both. This is because every time they are dry of what to say, they find the Senate as the punching bag and they continue punching until their fingers pain, then they stop. We have to stop this. Mr. Speaker, Sir, we went to court during the tenure of Speaker Ethuro, and this whole House, without exception, walked to the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court said that it was inconceivable to imagine any Bill that does not concern counties. If you are talking about land, it is alienated and stolen in counties. Even if you talk about sugar, the sugar with mercury is being found in the counties."
}