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{
    "id": 86954,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/86954/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 354,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Mr. Musyoka",
    "speaker_title": "The Vice-President and Minister for Home Affairs",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 188,
        "legal_name": "Stephen Kalonzo Musyoka",
        "slug": "kalonzo-musyoka"
    },
    "content": "Mr. Speaker, Sir, the House Business Committee took this responsibility very seriously, and I can report to this House that our deliberations were not easy. Indeed, before we went on a short break in order to be able to, among other things, participate effectively during the recent very successfully held Commonwealth Parliamentary Association (CPA) Conference, it was the assumption that political parties would consider and consult over this list, because we are dealing with a country which is absolutely enlightened with regard to the new constitutional order. I have said it before, from the Floor of this House that this august House, the Tenth Parliament, has a serious date with the destiny of this nation. I think we cannot be seen to be prevaricating in our responsibility to give direction. So, the time to implement the Constitution that the people of this great country overwhelmingly passed, and which was also promulgated on 27th August, is now. The responsibility lies completely on our shoulders, as the Tenth Parliament. Mr. Speaker, Sir, I, therefore, want to urge that we rise to the occasion and seize the moment, because we have already gone down well in history. I know that every hon. Member is qualified to be a Member of this oversight Committee. That is what came out. Every hon. Member, with the mandate of his or her constituency, is pre-eminently qualified to be a Member of this oversight Committee, but we have to make progress. Even when I joined you on the occasion of talking to hon. Members of this august House with regard to the treaty establishing the East African Community, as soon as I walked out, we were confronted by the media, because members of the Fourth Estate are serious stakeholders in this whole process. They have been calculating the dates. They asked you questions, which, I think, you better answered than I did. People were saying: “You are running out of time”. Mr. Speaker, Sir, I, therefore, think it is important that, acknowledging that all of us are qualified to serve in this Committee, we do what we heard some Members in the House Business Committee do. For instance, if the Member of Parliament for Gichugu was here, she would agree with me. She had wanted two Members from Narc Kenya. She said that the membership of Narc Kenya has been rising. I think we are all witnesses to that fact. She said that they are now 16 Members of Parliament and, therefore, they are entitled to two slots. We had to convince her, and she stepped down. That political party has only one Member in the Committee. That is the spirit we should be able to move with, if we are going to make progress. Therefore, I want to urge hon. Members, because we are all a family of the Tenth Parliament, regardless of the political parties we represent. If we can rise to the occasion and pass this list, I think the country will listen to us, and will give us good marks. However, if we are going to begin tearing down the list by saying that there was no full consultation, as we have already heard my good friend, hon. Lee Kinyanjui, saying - he is going to get an opportunity to raise the subject - that there was no political consultation, yet we had recess time--- Mr. Speaker, Sir, I know that the Whips tried to do the best they could. We had to send them out again and again; we have a product we can live with. Therefore, I want to really plead with this House that we pass this list and move to the next issue, because there are things which must be done expeditiously. Thank you."
}