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{
    "id": 990595,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/990595/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 155,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Garissa Township, JP",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Aden Duale",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 15,
        "legal_name": "Aden Bare Duale",
        "slug": "aden-duale"
    },
    "content": " Hon. Deputy Speaker, our Standing Orders allow any Member of this House, including me, to debate on the structure and role of the Senate. In this regard, allow me to refer to Article 123 of the Constitution, which is clear on the manner of voting in the Senate. Simply put, Article 123 of the Constitution provides that voting on a matter before the House is done by an elected Senator or nominated Senator of a respective county having been delegated to vote on behalf of a delegation. However, as you are aware, the Senate is said to have recently adopted rules of procedure that apparently fall outside the scope of Article 123 of the Constitution by allowing a concept of “proxy voting”. In fact, I am aware that for the two mediated versions of the Senate Bills that are now before this House for approval, the Leader of the Majority Party and the Minority Whip in the Senate were allowed to vote on behalf of Senators who signed to vote. That is absurd and unheard of in any parliamentary jurisdiction that I am aware of. Simply put, assuming we apply this concept in this House, all I will need to do is to rise and vote for as many Members as I can by arguing that they are voting through me. I will never do so. This, besides being strange and unknown procedure to the Constitution, is tantamount to erasing Article 123 of the Constitution and assuming that it does not exist in regard to the Senate. Therefore, if this absurd procedure was used in respect of these two mediated versions of the Senate Bills, how can we proceed, as a House, to approve the same today? What is undoubtedly tainted by illegality cannot be legal at the end. What I am raising today in this House is fundamental. The County Allocation of Revenue Bill 2020 will be brought to us, maybe, this afternoon, for consideration. If the same proxy voting will have been applied, it will mean, for example, that the Senator for Garissa County - where I come from - Senator Haji or any other Senator will not have voted to decide the amounts to be allocated to their respective counties. Proxy voting will purport to have voted for all counties. In fact, two Senators, the leader of the Majority Party and the Minority Whip, voting for all Senators will do away with at least 45 Senators. So, only two of them will have voted against 45 Senators. That brings to question the import of Article 96(1) of the Constitution, which defines the Senate’s role as being to protect and represent the interest of counties. Hon. Deputy Speaker, it is for these reasons that I seek your indulgence and guidance on the legal and procedural propriety in terms of Article 123 of the Constitution on the mediated versions of the County Governments (Amendment) Bill (Senate Bill No.11 of 2017) and the County Governments (Amendment) (No.2) Bill (Senate Bill No.7 of 2017) before this House proceeds to approve the two Bills. I want to table the Hansard of the Senate proceedings. I am not a mad man. I did my homework last night and I have the Hansard . Of interest are Pages 29, 30 and 32, more so Page 34 of that day’s Senate deliberations. If I may read: “"
}