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{
    "id": 983470,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/983470/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 57,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Garissa Township, JP",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Aden Duale",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 15,
        "legal_name": "Aden Bare Duale",
        "slug": "aden-duale"
    },
    "content": "this morning, under your chair, proposes to suspend the sittings of the House to demonstrate the leadership and also give precautionary measures. Owing to the high interconnected nature of the work of parliamentarians, parliaments around the world are particularly vulnerable to the threat of the virus. Aware of the public importance of Parliament and recognising the need to ensure Parliament continues to fulfill its constitutional mandate, roles and duties in spite of the threats posed by the pandemic, the leadership of Parliament under the leadership of the Speaker has taken this action. To this end, may I thank your leadership and that of your counterpart in the Senate for the preventive measures that have been instituted including having all MPs and staff checked before coming to Parliament, the provision of hand sanitisers even though the one that is just outside the Chamber is like glue; it is sticky. Hon. Members are raising questions about the quality of the one just at the entrance. It is very sticky, so the supplier must be sought to establish whether he complied with the specifications of the Kenya Bureau of Standards (KEBS). Another preventive measure is advocating for social distancing. That is very important. Social distancing and self-quarantine are important just like what happened a few minutes ago. There is also the suspension of all foreign travel by MPs and staff, visits by school parties and delegations to Parliament. All official parliamentary engagements and others are also suspended. Hon. Speaker, under your direction, we agreed that we only suspend the sittings of the Committees only for next week so that the other week we resume Committee sittings. We request you to institute the usual administrative measures to ensure that Committees suspend sittings for the next week and resume around 30th March 2020 subject to the confirmation of the magnitude of the spread. Several parliaments and other jurisdictions have placed this. Hon. Speaker, before I finish, it is important to say that a lot of businesses will be affected in our country like the Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs). From what I see in other countries, Parliament, as leadership of the people, must sit with the National Executive and create an avenue where Government bails out these businesses. It happened in Germany yesterday. The German Government has given 300 billion Euros to make sure that no business suffers. When it happened in the United States of America (USA) during the economic meltdown, the USA Government spent close to USD 800 billion to save its economy. It is important for our Government and Parliament to make sure that… We know this. Even in the"
}