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{
    "id": 823162,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/823162/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 350,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Isiolo North, KPP",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Hassan Hulufo",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13348,
        "legal_name": "Hassan Oda Hulufo",
        "slug": "hassan-oda-hulufo-2"
    },
    "content": "One of the key issues which should be of concern to all of us is the way facilities in Parliament are not conducive for Members living with disabilities, as well as members of the public who would like to participate in the proceedings of the Committees of the House. It is very shameful. Parliament should be the first institution to comply with the provisions of the Disability Act because it makes laws. Therefore, it has the obligation to comply with the laws we have made. I would like to talk about the conditions in our offices, specifically in Continental House, where most of our offices are located. On quite a number of instances, I have been unable to use some of the facilities, especially the washrooms. More often than not, there is a shortage of water in the washrooms and this could lead to very serious health consequences. In addition, more often than not, the internet connectivity is down. Many times, we are unable to use emails in our offices because the server is down. That is unacceptable. We cannot work without ICT. We need a very good internet connection. Another issue which Members have mentioned and which is important for us is the welfare of our staff. As parliamentarians, our effectiveness is contributed to by having qualified people to support us in various roles and whose welfare is adequately taken care of. As we speak, members of our staff have not been paid last month’s salary. It is not easy for us to support them from our pockets. The IFIMIS has to be fixed. When we moved away from the manual ways of running Government financial systems, we thought the transition from one financial year to another would be an easy thing which would enable us to overcome the need to take some time for books to be reconciled and transactions for the subsequent year opened. That does not seem to be the case. Therefore, when our staff are not paid, it affects our effectiveness because we rely on them. The other issue is a library. A library is a very key resource for us. It is in the libraries where we do our research. The location of the library is very key, as other Members have said. We need a library that is adequately resourced both with physical books as well as virtual ones, where our research assistants can help us do research and also make us contribute to the debate in the House from an informed point of view. The other issue is the research staff. As one of the Members has alluded to, we need to have staff deployed as researchers to come from diverse disciplinary backgrounds because most of the times, when we are discussing Bills or matters which are technical in nature especially those probably that are not in line with our area of training, we need research officers to help us to appreciate what is being discussed so that we can make informed contributions to the debate in the House. As legislators, we spend most of our time in committees. We have committee rooms in the main building, Continental House and Protection House. We have had experiences where the public address systems are not working. Where they work, they are inadequate and Members have to share microphones. That is not acceptable. We need to do something about it. Sometimes, when a matter that a committee is handling is of great public interest, we get members of the public or stakeholders attending, but our sitting space is limited. Even the seats in most offices and committee rooms are old. They need to be replaced. There is a system where over time, you try to depreciate equipment and furniture to the extent that after being in use for some time, they are disposed. That system does not seem to be working. Some of the chairs we are using today probably were used two or three decades ago. It is high time they were replaced."
}