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{
    "id": 843219,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/843219/?format=api",
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    "content": "arrangement under the old Constitution. In the current Constitution, oversight as a role of Parliament is so critical and it is not just given to Parliament generally, but each House of Parliament has got the power of oversight. I hope that with Sen. Outa joining the Committee on Health, we will be able to see more oversight in the health sector in so far as this House is concerned. When Government functionaries do not want to appear before Parliament, there is certainly something wrong. There is something wrong in the constitutional arrangement because it means they do not want to perform their functions in accordance with the Constitution. In fact, we help public functionaries by oversighting them so that they do not run into problems. Most of them do not want to be oversighted because they know what they are doing. Before a matter comes to a Committee of the House, you will find that a great act of impunity has been committed by that state organ or by the functionary. Lastly, I had suggested to the Senate Majority Leader that we need to look at these committees again and when we vote, we try to vote as a Senate. I want the Senate Majority Leader to listen to me because I had approached him. In another 50 years, people will not care whether there was Jubilee, ODM or NASA in this House. They will look at the function of this Senate during its tenure and how it performed. Yesterday when we were voting on the Bills, we did not vote on the basis of our political parties. Therefore, I urge that we look at these committees again, looking at the effectiveness of the membership of that Committee, particularly the committees that have been given powers to oversight devolved functions like health. If anybody was listening to Sen. Mwaura, I think that we need to look into that Committee and other committees together and see how we can restructure them to be more effective in performing the work that the Senate should be performing in achieving its oversight role. There used to be a Minister in the United Kingdom, in fact, he was a backbencher most of the time and when he spoke in the House of Commons, people would stand and say ‘you are out of order’. They would tell him that the Majority Leader was speaking so you are out of order and he would be punished. He would go out there and talk to the public. The public would say the Member of Parliament, Rt. (Hon.) Tony Benn, was right. The people who were trying to stop him from speaking were the ones who were on the wrong. Eventually, Parliament had to change its standing orders in order to make sure that the work of committees and Parliament was more transparent; would be achieved, and that is what Rt. (Hon.) Tony Benn was trying to do. Sen. Mwaura was trying to say that we need to be effective. If we are not going to talk about committees, then how do we judge these committees? If you look at the Standing Orders, there are specific requirements of how the Members should behave, including the Chairperson. If we are criticising your official conduct as Chairperson of a Committee, I do not think that you should be overly sensitive; otherwise, we will just be here to please ourselves as if we are in a debating club. We are here for serious business. People can throw shoes over when emotions run high and a little bit of that drama is allowed. In this House, we talk as if we are in a debating club. We should not be in a debating club. In fact, I have never seen men and women who have got the capacity like I 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."
}