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{
    "id": 968979,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/968979/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 55,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "c",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "Kisii, Nyamira and Nairobi. The Speaker of the Senate and I did publish this information in the Kenya Gazette as Gazette Notice No. 11013 dated 22nd November, 2019 for the information of the public. As I had indicated earlier, one of the key procedural difficulties that the Speakers jointly identified was the delivery of the draft Bill to the county assemblies on varying dates and the lack of a definite timeline within which the county assemblies are to submit their resolutions to the Speakers of the two Houses of Parliament. The other procedural gap is that the Constitution does not obligate the county assemblies which have rejected such a draft Bill to file any return to the Speakers. Further, each county assembly having considered the draft Bill within the required three months, there seems to be no express limitation on the period within which the Speakers of county assemblies ought to deliver the decisions of their respective county assemblies jointly to the Speakers thereafter. Correspondences received from the IEBC indicated that the first set of county assemblies to receive the draft Bill was on the 19th of July 2019, while Kajiado County Assembly received the draft Bill last, having received it on 29th July, 2019, ten days after the first set of county assemblies had received it. Consequently, the last date by which Kajiado County Assembly ought to have made a resolution after its consideration of the draft Bill pursuant to the provisions of Article 257(5) of the Constitution was, therefore, the 28th October, 2019. It would, therefore, be logically expected that by now, all county assemblies ought to have delivered a copy of the draft Bill jointly to the Speakers of the two Houses of Parliament, with a certificate indicating their decision on the Bill. From the statistics I have just read, only three county assemblies have so far approved the Draft Bill, far below the threshold of 24 county assemblies required under Article 257(7) of the Constitution to cause the introduction of the Bill in Parliament. However, Hon. Members will note that with the number of county assemblies that have rejected the Bill currently at 23 and the number of county assemblies yet to indicate their resolutions on the Bill currently standing at 21, a final determination by the Speakers of the Houses of Parliament as to whether the threshold has been met would be premature. To the extent that Article 257(5) of the Constitution does not give a definite timeline within which the county assemblies must submit their decisions on the draft Bill, the two Speakers of Parliament do not have any particular avenue of knowing whether the remaining 21 county assemblies considered the draft Bill within the prescribed three months period and the nature of the resolution that they passed. The two Speakers can only rely on and verify information formally transmitted to them by the county assemblies. Until and unless the remaining 21 county assemblies indicate their respective decisions on the draft Bill, the hands of the two Speakers remain tied with respect to the rest of the process contemplated under sections (7) to (11) of Article 257 of the Constitution. For the time being, Hon. Members, the threshold required under Article 257(7) of the Constitution for introduction of the Bill in Parliament has not been met. Article 257 of the Constitution was not crafted in vain. It is a provision which allows any citizen to originate a proposal to amend the Constitution and to garner popular support for the proposal with a view of having the proposal considered by Parliament upon gaining the support of the majority county assemblies. Originating and steering such a process obviously involves a significant investment of personal time and resources."
}