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{
    "id": 814470,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/814470/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 77,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. (Dr.) Ali",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "Thank you, Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir. I stand to support the statement fully without any reservation, fear or favour from anybody. The fact is, as Sen. Khaniri said, some of us have served as MPs in the “lower” Chamber for years. We, therefore, know what they are capable of and what we can do here. The problem we have is the fear of the unknown; that is what is harassing our friends on the other side. They fear that the Senate is going to overshadow them, which has happened of late; and we will continue doing that. We are told that Bills have been passed from this House to the National Assembly only for them to be plagiarised, hidden or destroyed. Unfortunately, they are always on recess. Why can they not use that time to read the Senate Bills and work on them instead of going home every other week? They were away the whole of last month. They came back for two weeks and they are again going on recess. They have no jobs. That is why they were doing what they did yesterday. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, what shocks me is that we are told that there are Bills which do not touch on the counties. If I may ask: “What is this thing called “national”? If you remove one county, for example, Wajir County, from Kenya, does it still become Kenya? No. That is just without one county. Therefore, if you remove 41 counties, there will be no “national.” That is what I talk of when some people want to harass the people from the region where I come from on the basis of population. I always tell them that a country is land. This is because populations go, but the land remains. Our colleagues in the National Assembly should understand that Kenya is made of counties and every county matters. The difference between the National Assembly and the Senate is that, whether you have a population of 10 million or a land mass of 100,000 square kilometres, it does not matter. Here, it is represented by one person while there, they have so many depending on the population and the numbers they have. This House represents Kenya with all the communities in it. It is a place where we have people of maturity. That is why we do not harass anybody and talk ill of anybody else. An old woman once said; “When you are carrying a baby on your back and the baby bites you all along, what do you do?” You put down the baby and tell him or her; “ Sasa wewe kaahapa .” When the child stops crying, then you can continue carrying him or her. These ‘children’ have cried for so long. We should now put them down so that they realise where it pinches most. Where is that? We should hit the so-called Constituencies Development Fund (CDF). During our times, the CDF was very good and important. It The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposes only. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor, Senate."
}