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{
    "id": 885811,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/885811/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 283,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Suba North, ODM",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. (Ms.) Odhiambo-Mabona",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 376,
        "legal_name": "Millie Grace Akoth Odhiambo Mabona",
        "slug": "millie-odhiambo-mabona"
    },
    "content": " Thank you, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, for giving me this opportunity. I wish to thank the Committee for this Report and also take this opportunity to support. In supporting, I want to say that I am very happy I sponsored the Treaty Making and Ratification Act, which has enabled Members of Parliament to know what treaties the country is getting involved in. Through Parliament, we are then able to know whether the treaties that the country is getting into further our interests as a country. I wish to indicate that our role as Members of Parliament under the Treaty Making and Ratification Act is to make sure that we are not just conduits for treaties. Sometimes I get very perturbed when I see whenever we deal with international treaties that Members do not have a lot of interest yet we need to interrogate treaties in the same manner that we interrogate other pieces of legislation. Under Article 2(6) of the Constitution, every treaty that has been ratified by Kenya becomes part of the laws of Kenya. So, if we let treaties pass without interrogating them, then it means we are passing laws without interrogating their content. So, sometimes it is a bit disheartening when you see that Members do not really take a lot of interest when dealing with treaties, but we take a lot of interest in other pieces of legislation when actually once they pass here and then they get ratified, they gain the status of law in the country. One of the things I would have hoped to hear from the Chairman of the Committee, because we are actually benchmarking these treaties against our own Constitution, is on the structure of the bureau, the composition by gender, youth inclusion and inclusion of persons with disabilities. That is a standard that we have placed in our Constitution, so that if you find a treaty"
}