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{
    "id": 911887,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/911887/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 94,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Sakaja",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13131,
        "legal_name": "Johnson Arthur Sakaja",
        "slug": "johnson-arthur-sakaja"
    },
    "content": "Mr. Speaker, Sir, we can make progress on these issues. The HANSARD will bear me out. Sen. Wetangula, I think you walked out when I responded to that particular matter. The first issue raised by Sen. Orengo; yes, the country is at war which is based on the constitutional provisions that he has quoted. In 2011 – if I am not wrong – he was in the Cabinet and Parliament approved Kenya’s war against Al Shabaab and that has not been withdrawn. We are not shy of bringing responses to this House. If anything, from this side of the House, there are very few Senators who have been less apologetic of the Executive. We will do it based on our Standing Orders and the rules of this House. On the earlier question that the Senate Majority Leader is talking about, sometimes even as Chairpersons, once we have invited the Cabinet Secretary, beyond that, even dispatching the correspondence is not in the hands of the Committee. It is in the Office of the Speaker and the Clerk. The correspondence has gone, we are still on that matter and we are waiting for them to come on an agreed upon date on which Members will be alerted. Finally, Mr. Speaker, Sir, there are some situations – anybody who is honest with themselves will bear me out – where some matters do not serve our interests discussed in Plenary. As Sen. Wetangula has said, through the proper channel when that response comes, we will then take a decision as a Committee whether to hear it in camera or not. I have not said that there is no question we will not ask. We ask everything. In fact, we have asked for things beyond any other committee in this House. However, some of those things are dealt with responsibly in camera so that we do not come here and exalt because it is an ideological war. We cannot come here and exalt the war that they are meting out on us by saying that this is the number of Kenyans who have been killed. We will deal with it in the Committee. In fact, we will invite those who have asked those questions to come and listen to the responses with privilege and in camera. At the end of the day, as we exercise our independent function as a Senate, we must remember that we are part and parcel of this territory called Kenya and we must remain patriotic."
}