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{
    "id": 824929,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/824929/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 133,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Kuresoi North, JP",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Moses Cheboi",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 329,
        "legal_name": "Moses Kipkemboi Cheboi",
        "slug": "moses-cheboi"
    },
    "content": "Hon. Speaker, this Motion is very critical both to the Members individually and to the House at large. As Members are aware, under the new Constitution, which introduced a presidential system of governance, the Cabinet Secretaries no longer sit in the House as they are not Members of Parliament. This new dispensation effectively brought the Question Time to an abrupt end. In trying to address this gap, the 11th Parliament substituted it with statements directed to committee chairpersons. Whereas the statements have been very useful, for those Members who have been in this House long enough… I was checking records of the House today and discovered that probably Hon. Maoka Maore is the oldest sitting Member of this House in terms of the experience. He was here in 1992 and probably earlier than the grandfather of the House, Hon. Jimmy Nuru Angwenyi. The difference between the two of them is that Hon. Angwenyi has served more terms including the half which he came somewhere in 1995. He has served four terms and he is going to his fifth one whereas Hon. Maoka Maore, who is the older one because he came here in 1992 under the Democratic Party (DP), a very small party, has lost quite a number of elections. In fact, he lost two in a row. Those Members who managed to enjoy the Question Time that existed prior to this Constitution when our Constitution was what could be referred to as a mongrel constitution then because it combined both the parliamentary and presidential systems, will tell you that Question Time was, first, the most popular time of the House. Secondly, it gave the Members publicity. I will give you an example. The Member for Kuresoi as a whole then once brought a question which dealt with pyrethrum. Seated back there, he came with a pyrethrum stem to the House. It went on record and in many subsequent elections that he was elected, that Member for Kuresoi North, who is yours truly, has been elected on the basis of what the constituents saw as a constructive way of trying to improve the prices of pyrethrum then. What I am just trying to say, Hon. Members, is when this Question Time is modified in a manner that conforms to the current Constitution, it is going to be very useful to the membership of the House. This will particularly have an effect in the issue of making Members have an opportunity to show their participation in front of cameras for the constituents to see so that the constituents will be represented and also feel represented."
}