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"speaker": null,
"content": "(The sitting resumed at 5.47 p.m.)"
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"id": 1553393,
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"text_counter": 380,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Sen. Abdul Haji",
"speaker_title": "The Temporary Speaker",
"speaker": null,
"content": " Let us resume. Proceed, Senator Omtatah."
},
{
"id": 1553394,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1553394/?format=api",
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"speaker_name": "Sen. Okiya Omtatah",
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"content": "Thank you, Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, for the opportunity to address this august House with regards to the Motion being debated. I have looked through the Motion and will comment on a few issues. This matter was allegedly triggered off by an element of insubordination on the part of the deputy governor. As stated in the report, she decided to approach the Deputy President to go on a trip to the United States of America (USA) without the knowledge or approval of the House or her governor. When she wanted to be facilitated for the trip, I think the governor lost his cool. The committee should have condemned that insubordination, which it did not even if the governor overreacted. The Constitution does not state the functions of a deputy governor, but you can glean them from what the Constitution says about the deputy president. In Article 147 of the Constitution, it is clearly stated that- (i) the Deputy President shall be the principal assistant of the President and shall deputize for the President the execution of the President's functions. (ii) The Deputy President shall perform the functions conferred by this Constitution and any other functions of the President as the President may assign. (iii) Subject to Article 134, when the President is absent or is temporarily incapacitated and during any other period that the President decides, the Deputy President shall act as the President. (iv) The Deputy President shall not hold any other state or public office. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, if that was to be understood in its clarity, you would realize that a deputy governor is nothing more than a spare wheel, for lack of a better image. If a vehicle has a spare wheel, that comes into play when one of the wheels is incapacitated or is not functional. This idea that a deputy governor can stand apart from a governor is untrue. This is because it is going to create two centers of power, and that will not be good. The governor and the deputy governor are one ticket, there is one center of power in the county, and the deputy governor must realize that there is no shortcut to the governorship. If they wanted to be governors, they should have run as governors. They should not seek to be governors through the back door. To be a deputy is as defined in the law. I do not see any other functions that can be assigned to a deputy governor beyond what the Constitution lays out for a deputy president in Article 47, taking into consideration all the changes and alterations that may be required. I support that there has to be mutual respect and any misunderstanding should be resolved. The other question that comes in is the question of budgetary allocations. The people who make the budget are MCAS. If there is a group that has to be helped to understand how to allocate funds, then it is the MCAS. I remember the national The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Director, Hansard and AudioServices, Senate."
},
{
"id": 1553395,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1553395/?format=api",
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"speaker_name": "Sen. Okiya Omtatah",
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"content": "government used to have funds allocated directly to the office of the deputy president, and to the office of the president, though it changed sometime. Maybe, we can directly allocate funds in the budget, so that the deputy governor does not depend on funding from the governor. He or she can have his or her office recognized as an office that exists as a governor in waiting, or a governor in times of emergency. The office will be fully facilitated right from the budget. Maybe, we may need to look at our budget-making process to ensure that we put in place structures where these offices are funded and facilitated to operate. However, no functions beyond being deputy governor should be assigned to a deputy governor. There are situations that arise where the question of the office of the deputy governor is abused. In this particular case, you have seen that the deputy president shall not hold any other state office or public office. In some counties, you find that deputy governors are assigned ministerial duties. It is a habit across the country. In my own County of Busia, the Deputy Governor doubles up as the CEC for health. I think we need clarity. The other thing that we need to look at is the total number of county executives that a county can hold. Whereas the Constitution sets a top limit of 10 county executives, you find that some counties appoint more. They argue that because they have appointed the deputy governor to a county executive position in the county, therefore, they have got a leeway to appoint another person to make the 10. So a county like Busia has 11 members of the county executive, and their defense before the Committee is that one is a deputy governor thus does not count. How can he not count yet he is running a ministry? So, these kinds of things need to be looked at critically. We should make people understand that when they choose to become a deputy governor, then they choose to become a deputy governor. They should not hide in the office of the deputy governor to do other things. I say this without condemning any deputy governor who is serving in any role, but to draw attention to the fact that we should try to sanitize our counties and limit the money the county spends on governance. We should not allow counties to go beyond 10 county executives where the law sets that limit. There was reference to the play Echoes of War by the former Senator of Kakamega County, Hon. Malala. Hon. Malala called me sometime last week and said that his play was being frustrated at the national level. He did that because sometime in 2013 or thereabouts, I filed a petition to demand that Butere Girls be allowed to perform their play, ‘Shackles of Doom,’ incidentally by the same gentleman, Hon. Malala. The late Hon. Justice David Shikomera Majanja wrote a detailed judgment on the question of freedom of expression, especially artistic expression. So, we cannot be brought to a date where one can criminalize storytelling, creative arts or satire."
},
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"id": 1553396,
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"text_counter": 383,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Sen. Okiya Omtatah",
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"content": "Over and above that, the Ministry of Education has an elaborate structure of filtering plays. This play did not just spring onto the national stage. It started at the school level before moving to the zones, division, county, region then to the national level. How can we begin hearing these funny things when it gets to the national level? It is an attempt to introduce politics in schools and we should condemn it. The same officers from the Ministry of Education were the ones who adjudicated this play right from the grassroots. The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Director, Hansard and AudioServices, Senate."
},
{
"id": 1553397,
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"text_counter": 384,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Sen. Okiya Omtatah",
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"content": "The Ministry of Education has actually been quoted as saying that they have not banned that play. The court examined the play and found it not to be subversive. It ordered that the play be allowed to run. It ordered that the author be free to present his play. So, it is now a bit disturbing that some overzealous officers have taken it upon themselves to try and run it the wrong way. It is a matter of public record that Butere Girls is the alma mater of some prominent ladies in this country. Some of those ladies are supposed to have been vexed by the fact that their former school is being associated with this kind of performance. It is said that they are the ones behind the overreach by security forces to try and frustrate the play even when the Cabinet Secretary for Education has gone on record to say that they did not ban that play. I, therefore, would like to call upon those who are in charge of this country to ensure that we do not lose our focus in terms of what should be done. The use of excessive force against children is not acceptable. We are a democracy and the use of non-teaching staff in extracurricular activities like writing and directing plays like coaching people during football, volleyball, netball games for coaching kids during music festivals is allowed because a school is not an island. It is part of the wider community and it should interact with the wider community. I have seen some people say that Hon. Malala is a politician, but I am also a published playwright for those who do not know. I am probably the topmost playwright living in Kenya today. I have written and published plays. My plays are being taught in the black drama series in the United States of America. That does not mean that I am a lesser human being who cannot engage with a school. Does it mean that I cannot go, with my vast experience, into a school and participate in drama festival? So, Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, as a country, we are dancing down a very dangerous and slippery slope that is going to attempt to stifle freedom of expression. Above all, after a court has ordered, assuming there was a dispute and there was no emergency, there were just overzealous individuals; assuming there was a dispute, the court has resolved that dispute by giving specific orders, we cannot afford to defy those orders. If you do not agree with the orders, go back to the court that issued them and demand that they be lifted. Do not try to take the law into your own hands and do whatever you want. So, in terms of insubordination that we are also talking about in this particular Motion, I feel that this culture of insubordination to legitimate authority needs to be addressed, so that we do not end up being our own enemies. We do not end up harming the fabric that holds this country together, and we proceed to encourage the creative arts to help us look at and help us understand what exactly we are entitled to, as a people. The Echoes of War is a beautiful script whose performance should be allowed to go free of charge. I condemn in the strongest terms possible the arrest and the detention of the author, the former Senator for Kakamega County, Hon. Malala. I pray that those who did that be brought to book. This is one thing that deserves a Motion or a Statement to be brought to this House, so that we can understand what is happening in Nakuru. We cannot leave it to overzealous individuals and random nationalists to come and try to tell us the “do's” or The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Director, Hansard and AudioServices, Senate."
},
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"id": 1553398,
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"text_counter": 385,
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"speaker_name": "Sen. Okiya Omtatah",
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"speaker": null,
"content": "“don’ts of the creative arts. We must not get to a place where those in power have a reverse-minders touch that---"
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"id": 1553399,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1553399/?format=api",
"text_counter": 386,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Sen. Abdul Haji",
"speaker_title": "The Temporary Speaker",
"speaker": null,
"content": " Sen. Omtatah, just as a matter of guidance, if you could please follow Standing Order No.120 on relevance and repetition. You have deviated from the Motion at hand, and I have given you a leeway to discuss the matter that you have entered into, but you are dwelling on it too much. If you could just stick to the relevance of the Motion, Senator?"
},
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"id": 1553400,
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"text_counter": 387,
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"speaker_name": "Sen. Okiya Omtatah",
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"speaker": null,
"content": "Yes, Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, I am guided by your wisdom. As I wind up, I was just going to bring up an analogy that the genesis of the dispute in Trans Nzoia County was not being addressed. When I looked at the report, the governor had clearly said that he and the deputy governor had a very good working relationship until he learnt that the deputy governor had gone to the Deputy President and gotten a trip to go to the USA and wanted funding from the county. However, as his assistant, he should have begun by getting clearance from the governor to do that. So, this insubordination was at the root of it. I noticed that the Report by the Committee did not dwell on that. Finally, there was a report to the DCI, which made this a matter under active investigation. There was no feedback in the report about what the findings of the DCI were and the outcome of that complaint with the DCI, whether it was withdrawn or not. I have not seen it in the report. From where I stand, I am unable to support this Report, and in my submission, I oppose it for being inadequate and failing to exhaust the issues before it. With those remarks, I return the microphone and thank you for the opportunity to address you."
},
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"id": 1553401,
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"text_counter": 388,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Sen. Abdul Haji",
"speaker_title": "The Temporary Speaker",
"speaker": null,
"content": " Thank you, Senator. Sen. Tabitha Mutinda, you may proceed."
}
]
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