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{
    "id": 887184,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/887184/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 74,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Kikuyu, JP",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Kimani Ichung’wah",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 1835,
        "legal_name": "Anthony Kimani Ichung'Wah",
        "slug": "anthony-kimani-ichungwah"
    },
    "content": " Thank you, Hon. Speaker. I rise on a point of order relating to the reply of these Questions. I heard the Member for Mwala Constituency asserting that this is the second time he is asking his Question after having asked it last year. I remember your Communication early this year at the inception of this Session where you communicated that all statements and petitions that had been read out in the Chamber before the lapse of the last Session of Parliament had since lapsed. I was not certain whether Questions had also lapsed until I heard the Member mention that he addressed the same Question. Instructively, Standing Order No.42 stipulates the timelines within which these Questions should be answered. What concerns me is that Members’ Questions are being asked in this House and they go unanswered beyond the time stipulated under Standing Order No.42. Therefore, we find that so many have lapsed. I had two Questions last year. One was referred to the Departmental Committee on Transport, Public Works and Housing regarding compensation of land owners along Waiyaki Way-Rironi Expansion Programme for the highway. Another one was referred to the Ministry of Interior and Coordination of National Government relating to foreigners who have been given work permits and are doing manual jobs around the city and in various business districts. All those Questions have lapsed. Looking at the trend, and I say this with a lot of respect to the Chairs of Committees, many of these Questions lapse because Chairs of Committees are not scheduling them to be answered before Committees. I want you to offer guidance, especially to Chairs of Committees, to give priority to Questions that have been asked by Members in the House. This is so that we conform with what is provided for in our Standing Orders. Within 30 days of reading of the Question in the House, the Chair should come back with answers to these Questions. It will not make any sense for Members to rise every other afternoon to read out Questions that are never answered. We are almost nearing the end of another Session and I am certain that there are Questions that will be asked and will not be responded to. I have no fear in saying that there are some particular Cabinet Secretaries (CSs) who are notorious for not answering Questions. I do not know whether it is an effort to please the Executive or to act more executive than the Executive. But there is a trend. Without naming anyone, there are those who are notorious for not responding to Questions. It is the same thing which you did with your Communication earlier last month when the House Business Committee under your chairmanship ordered the publication of Bills that had overstayed in Committees. I seek your guidance in helping us to enforce what we have provided for in these Standing Orders. It will be useless for Members to ask Questions that will never be answered."
}