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{
    "id": 833675,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/833675/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 294,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Halake",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13184,
        "legal_name": "Abshiro Soka Halake",
        "slug": "abshiro-soka-halake"
    },
    "content": "This Bill cascades what goes on at the national level in terms of access to information and giving effect to Article 37 and it also cascades down to what the Senate does to the county assemblies. One of the things that the Senate should be doing, which is helped along by this Bill, is ensuring that county assemblies and devolution is strengthened at the lowest level of service provision. I sit in the Committee on Lands, Environment and Natural Resources and we have received the highest number of petitions. We deal with close to 13 petitions every day in my Committee. Once the capacity and the frameworks have been set for our county assemblies, I foresee a situation where we will have the Senate offload some of the petitions and the things that can be done at the lower levels and things that can be done best my our Members of the County Assemblies. This means that the people will have access to legislation, oversight, representation where they live, work and pay. This is a very important Bill. It may look like it is not a huge Bill but it is huge in the sense that it is making our Constitution and Standing Orders actionable. It is also providing a framework within which the other branch of Government, at the local level, will have the right tools. It has created access to our citizens to petition them, not to mention that it also implements the rights and freedom as provided for in our Constitution under Article 21(3) where it states that:- ‘All state organs and all public officers have the duty to address the needs of vulnerable groups within society, including women, older members of society, persons with disability, children, youth, members of minority groups or marginalised communities, and members of particular ethnic, religious or cultural communities’ Article 21(1) and (2) states that:- ‘(1) It is a fundamental duty of the State and every State organ to observe, respect, protect, promote and fulfil the rights and fundamental freedoms in the Bill of Rights. (2) The state shall take legislative, policy and other measures, including the setting of standards, to achieve progressive realisation of the rights as guaranteed under Article 43.’ Once again, this goes beyond a framework for us facilitating petitions, to actually providing access to information and a framework for accountability to the citizens. This is because the right to picketing and petitioning is also a human right as well."
}