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{
    "id": 884833,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/884833/?format=api",
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    "speaker": null,
    "content": "Thank you, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker. I will be very brief. From the outset, I oppose these amendments from the Senate. These amendments are just a matter of being in competition or rivaling the National Assembly. Critically looking at all the amendments, the Senate is overstepping its mandate. What is the core mandate of the Senate? Theirs is to protect devolution and oversee the counties. Why are they getting involved in matters which do not fall under their purview? These are things which are national in nature. Looking at the composition of the Roads Board at the constituency level, they propose that there should be two members from Senator’s office and two from the NG-CDF office. The NG- CDF offices are based and structured in the constituencies. Do we even have Senator’s offices in the constituencies? We do not. There are no offices for Senators in the constituencies. Where would they name these persons from? Do they have offices? Do they envisage creating those offices in their own estimation after passing this Bill? When they say that there should be two members from the Senate and two from the NG - CDF, what is the rationale? The whole idea boils down to being in competition with MPs in their respective constituencies. The amendments serve the egos of the Senators who are trying to find relevance in the affairs of national matters. They look like they are in the upper House but they are not. They see the National Assembly as a lower House. They are trying to imitate the National Assembly. They are unable to perform their functions properly. During elections, most of the Senators behave as if they are the running mates of the governors. When a governor of their choice comes into power, they decide that they will not oversee him or look into affairs of the county because they were buddies during elections. That is the problem. On trying to summon Cabinet Secretaries, the only CS they need to summon at any one time, in my estimation, are the one in charge of devolution because he will deal with matters of counties and the one for National Treasury because of issues to do with release of funds. Sometimes they summon the CS for Education, CS for Interior and Coordination of National Government and even the one for Defence. What role do they play? The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposes only. Acertified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor."
}