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{
    "id": 916976,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/916976/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 156,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Suba South, ODM",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. John Mbadi",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 110,
        "legal_name": "John Mbadi Ng'ong'o",
        "slug": "john-mbadi"
    },
    "content": "That came from that Committee, in their minutes. The reason they proposed that the Senate should be a lower House is because it has limited and specific functions. Those are two parameters: limited and specific. Therefore, how come that was left out? It was left out because the Committee of Experts, which was chaired by Kitonga, gave advice that modern principles of constitution-making do not support the creation of a hierarchy between the two Houses of Parliament. They were very clear that modern systems do not allow or promote that one House should be upper and another one lower. I am saying this because our brothers in the Senate have ego problems; they always want to call themselves the upper House. That is not in line with the modern systems of democracy and of relationships between bicameral systems, as was advised. Otherwise, the Senate would be referred to as the lower House in the Constitution. The people of Kenya decided, in their own wisdom, to clearly define the functions of the two Houses of Parliament. That is found under Articles 95 and 96 of the Constitution. What is the responsibility and function of a Parliament? Anywhere in the world, parliaments have three functions; representation, oversight and legislation. The people of Kenya decided to distinguish the functions of the two Houses in line with the three functions. If you go to representation, what did the people of Kenya give the National Assembly as their representation role? The people of Kenya said that the National Assembly represents the people of the constituencies and special interests in the National Assembly; that the National Assembly deliberates on and resolves issues of concern to the people. What of the Senate? What did the people of Kenya, through this Constitution, give to the Senate? It says the Senate represents the counties and serves to protect the interest of the counties and their governments. That is very clear. That is the representation role that the people of Kenya decided to allocate each House of Parliament. The other function that has been allocated to the two Houses by the people of Kenya is that of oversight. What is the oversight role that is given to the National Assembly? This is the role: The National Assembly determines the allocation of national revenue between the levels of government as provided in Part 4 of Chapter 12. The role of the National Assembly is to divide revenue between levels of government. That is vertical division of revenue between the national and the county governments. That is the role that is given to the National Assembly. It goes ahead to say that the National Assembly shall appropriate funds for expenditure by the national Government and other national State organs. So, any expenditure, any money that will be spent by the national Government or any national State organ is appropriated by the National Assembly and exclusively so. Paragraph (c) says the National Assembly exercises oversight over national revenue and its expenditure. The final job of the National Assembly in terms of oversight is to review the conduct in office of the President. The House that reviews the conduct in office of Uhuru Muigai Kenyatta is the National Assembly. For the Deputy President, William Ruto, it is the National Assembly. And any other State officers. The National Assembly initiates the process of removing them from office. So, the House that reviews the conduct of any State officer who is in office and initiates the process of removing them, in fact, including senators because they are defined as State officers, is the National Assembly."
}