James Orengo

All parliamentary appearances

Entries 1631 to 1640 of 4273.

• 22 May 2019 in Senate: As such, a Bill on security and policing would be a Bill concerning counties. The substantive Speaker should have been here for him to listen to me read this: “With a good Speaker, the Senate should be able to find something that affects the functions of the counties in almost every Bill that comes to Parliament, making it a Bill that must be considered and passed by both Houses.” This speaks louder than any word. The other thing that I liked in this judgement was the issue of the Bill of rights. Allow me to refer to paragraph 193 which ... view
• 22 May 2019 in Senate: Madam Temporary Speaker, I wanted to deal with something that we sometimes take for granted. If we look at the Executive and the powers of the President, for example, they are limited; they are not limitless. Even the exercise of executive authority is shared. In fact, this Constitution removed a lot of powers that used to be enjoyed by the President before. The President was described as the executive authority of the Republic of Kenya under the old Constitution. However, that executive authority is now shared. For example, prosecutions and elections are completely out of the hands of the President ... view
• 22 May 2019 in Senate: You would remember that we used to have a Supervisor of Elections operating in the office of the Attorney-General (AG) before. The operational functions of the National Police Service (NPS) are Executive powers, but they have been removed from Presidential authority. The President‟s powers are limited to the appointment of the Inspector-General (IG) of police. These powers are now limited to sitting as a Cabinet and at National Security Council, where they can come up with policies regarding security. Another area where the Executive does not play a role is in Audit and the Control of Budget. These powers are ... view
• 22 May 2019 in Senate: Madam Temporary Speaker, if you go to the courts, there is a system of checks and balances between the subordinate courts and superior courts. Among the superior courts, we have different courts within it so that within the Judiciary itself, there is a system of checks and balances. A bicameral system is established so that within the legislative authority at the horizontal level, there is also a system of checks and balances between the two Houses of Parliament. To that extent, I hope that we will appreciate that this Constitution desired that the National Assembly and the Senate are co-equal ... view
• 22 May 2019 in Senate: Madam Temporary Speaker, therefore, I hope that when this Bill is passed, particularly in as far as to what happens between the two Speakers – because there is now a lacuna that need not have been there in the first place, because I think the Constitution is clear enough - we now have to be prescriptive to make sure that the games that have been played in the past are not played in the future. This is so that when there is a Bill for consideration, in order to know the criteria of defining a Bill as a special Bill ... view
• 22 May 2019 in Senate: This Bill also sets time limits, because under the law, as it is now, it has been abused. Any of the Speakers can sit on the question of concurrence and, to that extent, frustrate the role of the other House of Parliament. Therefore, Sen. Mutula Kilonzo Jnr. and Sen. Sakaja, I hope that when we come to the Committee Stage, when we are going to look at this Bill in a detailed manner, we would be able to see if there are any loopholes in it. This is because all the times, the people who want to abuse power always ... view
• 22 May 2019 in Senate: Madam Temporary Speaker, when we want this country to move forward, we should not try to take the easy path. Winston Churchill said that: The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor, Senate. view
• 22 May 2019 in Senate: “Many forms of Government have been tried, and will be tried in this world of sin and woe. No one pretends that democracy is perfect or all-wise. Indeed, it has been said that democracy is the worst form of Government except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time---” Although democracy is a messy system, there has been no better system. It worked because it is messy. It is not a system that is easy to manipulate, if it is properly applied. I, therefore, hope that the National Assembly will bear with us and know ... view
• 22 May 2019 in Senate: Madam Temporary Speaker, one of these days, they may find that there may be another despot who may think that he wants to use the Senate, as opposed to the National Assembly. They would then cry for this legislation that we are now putting in place. There are countries like the Philippines where, although there is a House of Representatives, the Senate is quite strong. In fact, there are only 24 Senators in a country of more than 100 million people. They have more than 300 Members of Parliament with a bigger population, but the Senate is a very powerful ... view
• 21 May 2019 in Senate: Mr. Speaker, Sir, let me also rise in support of this statement. I also had the opportunity to go to Kisumu Central Police Station to see the Deputy Minority Leader in custody. Without fear of contradiction, the law as established under the Constitution is for compliance. It is not for any other reason. When it comes to the Constitution, we should be speaking the same language. It does not matter whose rights are being violated, whether it is your brother or sister. In order to build a one united democratic nation, whenever any rights of a citizen or any individual ... view