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{
    "id": 954961,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/954961/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 145,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. Speaker",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "Hon. Members, even Hon. Junet was on a point of order. He is not out of order. He is at liberty to express his views. That is what I have always tried to encourage – that you be accommodative as much as possible. Please, let me not now listen to amateur opinion as proposed by Hon. Omboko. I do not think your opinion will be amateurish. Hon. Members, this is a matter over which I have given you direction on what I intend to do. Incorporate the views you have expressed alongside the provisions of Articles 31 and 35 of the Constitution, the provisions of the Advocates Act as well as the proposed amendments to the Proceeds of Crime and Anti-Money Laundering Act. Many of you have not even looked at the Report from the Departmental Committee on Finance and National Planning to see how they have treated these proposals. Your fears may be inchoate; they may be premature. I have not heard how they treated the presentations given to them by those who appeared and who may have raised the same issues that you raised. I think it is important that I make a ruling on the issue that has been raised about the principal object of a Finance Bill relative to other proposals included in it. How do the proposals sit in a situation of this nature where there is danger that Members may decide to reject the entire Bill? How do we stand? Let me look at all of them and give a ruling tomorrow afternoon. In the meantime, allow the Chair of the Committee to move the Bill, including giving to the House or telling the House the views they have received relating to these two clauses in the Bill. My ruling is capable of directing, inter alia, that debate on the two clauses should not be entertained. Why would you want to preempt that? That is also a possibility. In the event I rule otherwise and the matter is not sufficiently within the realms of the Constitution, you will still be at liberty to object. As I have always reminded, you are the people with the vote. Mine is limited to only making a ruling. You have the vote and the House proceeds through votes; you make your decisions through a vote. So, let us allow the Chairman to move. My ruling now is that the Chairman be allowed to move the Bill and the House be at liberty to debate it. My ruling has the potential to terminate any references to the two clauses, including their not being considered when the House proceeds to the Committee of the whole House. I have heard you. Listening to the number of you that have spoken, we will just hinge around what we make of these proposals vis a vis the constitutional Clauses 31 and 35 and also, importantly while going forward, what we think we should advise or direct other bodies or whoever it is that publishes a Finance Bill in the future. Many of you have argued this in the past. We may be called upon to restate certain other rulings that we have given in the past relating to similar proposals. So, for the time being, you are at liberty to vehemently, when you rise in your place and get a chance to contribute, make all the objections that you desire using the force of all legal arguments available to you. But then, wait for my ruling tomorrow afternoon. For the time being, we can live with that. Do not worry, the Chairman of the Departmental Committee on Justice and Legal Affairs. I am sure you will have a chance to expound on these issues which are in the two clauses and as you received from those that appeared before you. I am aware that some people even made efforts to even go to court to say that the Bill should be withdrawn. If it is a withdrawal, it will be done here. As you know, in Article 94, nobody or authority has power to make provisions having the force of law except Parliament at the national level. So, you are the people to make the law. Let us just deal with it that way. I have heard. I am sure I will address the issues that you have raised. 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."
}