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{
    "id": 956663,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/956663/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 98,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Wetangula",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 210,
        "legal_name": "Moses Masika Wetangula",
        "slug": "moses-wetangula"
    },
    "content": "Thank you, Mr. Speaker for this opportunity. I join you in thanking the Kitui County Government and its people for the warm welcome. We should never be complicit to sacrificing the constitutionality and legality at the altar of convenience. It has been very convenient to say that counties and people are suffering but there is no achievement of rights without sacrifice. What is happening in this country is entrenchment of impunity, absolute disregard for the law, absolute disdain for institutions and the Executive has found a bogey boy in the Senate to bully and molest at will. The National Assembly of this country will today go down in history as the most ignominious institution that this country has had; pandering to the whims of the Executive and doing anything humanly possible to please the Executive. It is a shame! If Sen. Wako were here – I can see Sen. Orengo is here – he would have told you that one time, as the Attorney-General, he tried to doctor a Bill by changing the words; ―not more than‖ and replacing with ―not less than‖. The High Court had very unkind words about him and struck it out. We know that there is no way we can have an appropriation without agreeing on how revenue should be divided. Some advisers to the President and some ne‘er-do-wells in the National Assembly told the President to ignore everything else and move on. They have even made the President think that the money that goes to the counties is his. You have heard him say that; ―I have no money to give you‖. Indeed, he has no money to give anybody because resources are collected from the people of Kenya, placed before the constitutional Commission on Revenue Allocation (CRA) and shared between the two levels of government. Mr. Speaker, Sir, we encourage you to build our case in future. Although Sen. (Eng.) Mahamud who is my good Chairman said that we should move on, the issue of accepting and moving on is what is destroying this country. When elections are rigged or someone cheats on you, you are told to accept and move. Mr. Speaker, Sir, after this short interlude, I encourage you to write a letter to the Speaker of the National Assembly to protest the content and dishonesty in the letter that he has sent you to build a case for our future. I encourage my colleagues who are lawyers and are involved in changing the Constitution at the legal level that we need to borrow from comparable jurisdictions. For example, in Pakistan, when any Bill is passed by Parliament, before its operationalization, it is placed before a constitutional court as a case stated, to declare if it is constitutional or otherwise. The Appropriation Bill would not have passed that test. As I finish, in doing what they are doing, truth be said, the illegality and unconstitutionality they are trying to cover is the massive resources from the people of Kenya that they have used to pay foreign debts that they have borrowed recklessly, knowing that people are bound to ask. We will encourage everybody, including Mr. Okiya Omtatah, to be on the route to court to challenge it. Even if judges are intimidated to do the opposite, one day, there will be a good judge to do the right thing. If this country is not ruled by the rule of law, then God help us. Like Wole Soyinka said, if the man dies in all who keep silent in the face of tyranny, I believe a woman equally dies in all who keep silent in the face of tyranny."
}