Hon. Senators, it is my pleasure and privilege to welcome you back to the Senate for the Second Session of the Twelfth Parliament. As you may recall, the First Session of this term was greatly affected by the prolonged electoral process in the country as well as delays in appointing House Leadership and constituting Select Committees of the Senate. This meant that we did not quite take-off as anticipated in the discharge of our functions and mandate. I am happy to note that the Senate Leadership Offices are now fully constituted. Consequently, I take this opportunity to congratulate the Majority and Minority Leaders and their Deputies as well as the Majority and Minority Whips and their Deputies on their election. I am also happy to note that the Select Committees of the House are now fully constituted, and extend my congratulations to the Chairpersons and Vice-Chairpersons elected to lead these committees. Hon. Senators, the Senate is now ready for take-off. We have before us the singular duty and mandate of delivering on the devolution promise to Kenyans. This Session is particularly important as it will lay the foundation for and define what the Senate will be able to do and achieve during this term. I, therefore, call upon each one of us, right from the outset, to re-commit and re-dedicate ourselves to the achievement of our constitutional mandate. Hon. Senators, as I stated in this House on 31st August last year, following my election as your Speaker, this Senate must be able to distinguish itself from and build on the foundation created by the Second Senate, to do even better. We must improve on our output in terms of the number and quality of Bills passed by the Senate, in terms of

Mr. Speaker, Sir, thank you very much for that opportunity. I beg to give notice of the followingMotion:- THAT

I beg to move the following Motion:- THAT

On a point of order, Mr. Speaker, Sir. I think this issue came here before and there was a ruling on it that there are Members of this House who have

Mr. Speaker, Sir, I totally concur with the point of order raised by Sen. Khaniri. I would be more than happy to see my name there reading EGH. I have no problem with that suggestion. I considered in the course of these proceedings that we will bring the necessary amendments before the end of the day to capture the titles such as EGH, including for Senior Counsel,James Orengo. So, if that is permitted, with your permission, I can proceed and then we will bring the amendments?

Mr. Speaker, Sir, I beg to move the following Motion:- THAT

Sen. Madzayo, what is your point of order?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker, Sir. Another point of order was raised and it requested for clarification particularly with regard to whether one is an EGH, OBS or whatever. These are basically political tittles. I was wondering whether that would also include professional tittles like Doctor, Engineer and Professor.

Proceed, Senator.

Mr. Speaker, Sir, I would like to get further clarification as to whether even architects and so forth can be along those lines.

Including Chiefs and Kings. Mr. Speaker Sir, I have no problem with a clarification being sought by Rtd. Justice Sen. Madzayo. However, the problem is that it is totally unprocedural for him to just rise up somewhere from the blues. There was no point of order. He just asked for clarification. There is nothing like clarification.

Proceed, the Senate Majority Leader.

Mr. Speaker, Sir, that subject was dispensed with long time ago. It was not part of the issues that were on the Floor. Being a senior person who has been here serving a second term, he should have known the procedure. That is why in his second term, he should not be making certain mistakes and attempting to confuse the Speaker. Now that I am being requested to keep it brief, I was at the point where I was saying that as Senate, the Senate Business Committee needs to prioritize certain legislation and certain businesses this time round, for example, businesses that are related to oversight of the counties. I was making this point because there is an outcry out there that members of the public feel like the Senate needs to do more to ensure that the resources that are given to the counties are felt by the common mwananchi . In that regard, I was making this case that the question of the Senate Oversight Fund is something we do not want to debate forever. We must bring it to a closure. We have had so much criticism from the National Assembly, the Executive at the national level, opinion leaders and so forth. When we brought the solution that makes the office of the Senator capable and able to deliver on the mandate of the Senator of oversight of thecounties, many people chickened out and started saying that giving Senators money will make them politically strong and so forth, yet the amount of money that is being requested by Senators is nothing compared to the resources that are available for all the other elective offices to carry out their constitutional mandate. Kenyans made a decision that they wanted the office of the Senator and the Senate to function. It cannot be difficult for Kenyans themselves to fund that office to deliver on the mandate that was given to this very important office of the Senate. The most urgent Bills that this House will have to deal with are related to matters of pension of county staff. That law has been pending for a long time. We were unable to complete that law during the last term. There are also others, like the Bill related to roads and the sharing of the Road Levy between the counties and the national Government and the Bills related to matters of Deputy Governors. I am going to soon introduce in this House a Bill that has already been published with regard to how to replace a vacant office of a Deputy Governor knowing that the Deputy Governor of Nairobi left office a few months ago. The office of the Deputy Governor of Nyeri County is vacant by virtue of the Deputy Governor ascending to the office of the Governor. That law will be brought to this House hopefully - if the Senate Business Committee approves - by tomorrow or the day after, so that we can have functioning county governments in the two counties.

Thank you Mr. Speaker, Sir. I beg to second. I begin by welcoming all Members back to the House after a deserved rest and recess which I hope you meaningfully used to fraternise and engage your constituents, where you have them. Those of you who can complement others, I hope you did so. Mr. Speaker, Sir, this is a Committee that is going to determine the business that we transact in this House. The membership is the same as it was in the last Session; so continuity is guaranteed. As we pass this Motion, I want to urge this House in this Session to pay attention to a few things that are going on in the counties that we represent. Number one, the government is selectively disbursing funds to counties. Those counties that do not enjoy government favour are only receiving recurrent expenditure disbursements; they have not received a single shilling for development. We pride ourselves that this is the House that is the equalizer of all counties. This is the House where Lamu, with two constituencies and a population of 100,000, is equal to Nairobi

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker, Sir. Let me join the leadership of the House in welcoming everybody back after the last Session. It gives me great pleasure to support this Motion. It is an important Motion because it relates to a very important Committee of the House that has to determine not only the way the business of the House will be managed, but also what business comes to the House. I fully support the membership. There are some new members in the Committee. They are not new in Parliament, but were not in the previous Committee. Some were in the previous Senate Business Committee. For the reasons already stated, there will be institutional memory. It is also important to welcome our Speaker to the chairmanship of this very important Committee of the House. Mr. Speaker, Sir, having said that, I want to use this moment for reflection. There is so much heat in the country that if we behave as if we are unaware of what is happening, we will be doing a great disservice to the nation. Parliaments are meant to deal with historical moments whenever there is a challenge to the nation. There was a time when Parliament was part of the Office of the President. The budget and administration of Parliament was linked squarely in the Ministry of Interior and Coordination of National Government. The Speaker more or less had to report to Harambee House and the Clerk was part of the furniture of Harambee House. It was hon. Aringo who fought very hard to bring independence to Parliament. In fact, there was a great struggle for hon. Aringo, with the Committee that he worked with, to make sure that Parliament was an independent institution. We have political parties and communities, but there comes a time when Parliament should be speaking for the nation. I should be able to cross the Floor and talk to Sen. Beth Mugo, with whom we have fought many battles. But once we begin to look at each other as Kikuyus, Luos, Kambas, and the nation is moving like the River Nile to the Mediterranean, we are doing a great disservice to the nation. Mr. Speaker, Sir, I was watching a programme the other day where the Chief Justice of South Africa was congratulating the Parliament of South Africa. In fact, he was saying that although both Parliament and the Executive did not understand the authority

Sen. (Prof) Ongeri

Thank you, Mr. Speaker, Sir. I rise to support this Motion. Like many Senators who have spoken before me did, I welcome all the Senators to this sitting because we have serious business to transact in this august House. I have spent a considerable period of time going around my county and many other areas within the country. One thing that has struck me most is that, previously, it was very easy to fetch water for drinking or for cooking purposes in our homes from the springs. However, I never thought that a county like Kisii or Nyamira will run dry of water. One of the issues we need to address in this Senate is provision of drinking water for animals and domestic use. I believe the Senate Majority Leader will be able to fast- track this matter urgently because our people are suffering. To me, if we will be able to achieve that single element on how to provide water to our nation, we will have gone a long way and it will give us a stamp of approval as a House that works in a bipartisan manner. I am looking forward to a robust Bill being presented before this House, not on an

basis of drilling a dam here or there, but that will address the provision of water to our people because it has now reached an emergency level. Year in, year out, we experience drought. With regard to this issue, we cannot sit pretty and hope that everything will happen by God’s grace. This is an issue we need to address ourselves to before it is too late. Secondly, I speak with a heavy heart because what I see around is that this country is about to split. I qualify as an elder to say so. When an elder sees things splitting, he needs to caution because we are driving this nation is to a point of no return. I believe in cautious manner, we should sit down and reason together. God himself said: “Come, let us reason together.” He is the Almighty God. We mortal beings can also take the same direction by living what the Bible, the Quran or any other religious book says. This is because we cannot continue sitting pretty when this nation is burning. Some of us who had little experience knew what had happened before the Serena talks. We were there with Sen. James Orengo, our current Deputy President, the late Kilonzo Mutula Snr. and others. The events that led up to the promulgation of the new Constitution 2010 were that certain fundamental rights of people had been tampered with. Admittedly, I was on the side of Government. When that issue came to the table, the Agenda Four was nothing, but how to be able to make this country governable; where everybody enjoys equal treatment in every corner and in every direction. What I see today is completely the opposite of the Agenda Four that we so animatedly deliberated and agreed upon on what should be our normal conduct; whether in the Executive, Judiciary or in Parliament, for that matter, in this Senate. I am pleading for reason. Let us bring back our reason, sit down and discuss for posterity. If we do not do so, we can easily burn this country where it is. I know, for instance, that a passport is a primary document for any citizen. To withhold the passport of anybody and yet in this House people are expected to transact business within and without this country, we are infringing directly on the fundamental rights of those people who voted us. We should honour that. There may be issues, but they can be discussed around a table. I have never said at any moment that everything is perfect. However, I am sure when we sit down together, we can reason together. There will be Bills that some of us would want to bring before this House. All I am looking forward to is to discuss them in a bipartisan manner and be able to treat each

Sen. Mutula Kilonzo Jnr.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker Sir. I rise to support this important Motion. As I do so, I am disappointed that what I thought would be a practice that we left in the last Senate has continued and persisted. I begin to wonder whether if that is the position taken by the National Assembly and we have not done anything about it on two important Bills. One of them is The Physical Planning Bill, 2017. The National Lands Commission sent The Physical Planning Bill, 2017 to us which is in consonance with the Constitution; then another one is sent to the National Assembly which is obviously being fast-tracked. The second one is on The Computer and Cyber Crime Bill. I am the one who drafted the Computer and Cyber Crimes Bill, 2017. As we go and retreat to discuss the business we bring to the Floor of this House, I would hate to sit in a committee where our work will be merely academic. We will be sitting to approve Motions and Bills by these good Senators and all of them will end up in a dustbin of history like it was in the last Senate. Hon. Senators, the number of Bills that ended up being signed into law is less than seven Private Members Bills. It is actually five. Each Senator had a Bill. Unless we can assure these Senators that we will sit in that Committee to get law in place, then I am afraid that committee will be doing what the last committee was doing; pushing paper. I would hate history to record me as one Member who pushed paper for the sake of it. If we cannot get our Bill assented to, then there is something wrong with this leadership. Secondly, I propose that the rulings that were done in the last Senate should be somewhere on the Clerks Table so that the Members who have joined us and those who were here previously can make references to them. The HANSARD records many things that we do here. So, I would urge that we spent some money and have hose HANSARD copies here, together with these laws and many other reports that people can refer to. Thirdly, one of the committee rooms in County Hall, now has beautiful i-Pads, that is where the Parliamentary Service Commission (PSC) sits because they love themselves more that they love us. It is us who take them there. We must tell you. They have put beautiful i-Pads for quick reference. You would imagine that the first place you would have such gadgets is here where we can make quick reference to the Constitution. Every time I label my Constitution and the Standing orders, they disappear. Those gadgets must be here. We must tell the PSC that they sit there on our behalf. Some of them do not like when I say it, but then I must say it. Mr. Speaker, Sir, this House and particularly this building and where we sit, including inside the gate, we are the only people in this country who can say and do whatever we want within the precints of Parliament. We are protected by law; nobody will sue you, you will not be arrested and nobody will refer to the statement you have made. We have all the freedoms. However, when the police, like they did last week,

Thank you, Mr. Speaker, Sir, for giving me the opportunity to support this Motion. The formation of the Senate Business Committee is a very important agenda before we start our business. I congratulate all the Members who have been named and support them because we have senior politicians here. We also have

Thank you Mr. Speaker, Sir, for giving me this opportunity. I rise to support this Motion. However, before I get to that, on behalf of the people of Narok County, I would like to send my message of condolences to the Senator of Nyamira County, Sen. Omogeni, for the loss of his mother. I would like to call upon all Members to reach out to the Senator and support him during this hard time. Secondly, I would like to delve into the issues of this House. I have said this severally and I want to repeat it; that this is, indeed, the House of union. What can set us aside is when we try to become visionaries; we must deal with issues of this country in a bipartisan way. The only way that we are going to be remembered in this country as able men and women who came during trying times and united the country is if we set our differences aside and discuss our issues during these trying times. We should agree that we must defend the independence of the three arms of Government. When I was growing up, I longed for the time when I would stand and say that I live in a democracy that respects separation of powers. If we turn a blind eye on that, then we will not know what to defend. I came to this House because I believe in the independence of Parliament. I also believed in the independence of the Judiciary and the Executive. These are very trying moments. I have just heard that the Attorney General, Githu Muigai, has resigned and someone else has already been appointed. The Director of Public Prosecution (DPP) also resigned yet they were in constitutional offices that give them time to serve this country well. During this second Session of the Twelfth Parliament, I would like to call upon all the Members in the Senate Business Committee to approach the business of this House in a bipartisan manner. I might be strong in certain things, but I should be ready to consider what the people who brought us here would like to say. We want a country where you can proudly say that whenever we have a problem, we can sit down and dialogue. That is what democracy is all about. With that in mind, I want to request you to apply your own discretion under Standing Order No. 120 on all the Bills that come here even if they are Government Bills.You can probably waive the pre-publication period for us to be different from the First Senate that had very few Bills passed and became Acts of Parliament. I would like to request that you consider invoking your powers under Standing Order No. 120 on the Bills that have been already presented instead of taking too much time. That might help us achieve progress in this House.

Thank you Mr. Speaker, Sir. I rise to support the Motion on the nomination of the House Business Committee, for the House to start running. I have listened to various speakers before me. I want to reiterate the issues of constitutionalism and rights. It is important for all of us to know that rights come with responsibilities. You cannot claim that you have a right when you are violating other peoples’ rights. That is important for us to understand. Secondly, this is the Second Senate. The First Senate was on a learning curve. I am sure that we have drawn a lot of lessons from the last Parliament that we should correct. We should also seal the gaps that are there in terms of legislation, practice and what we need to practice. Thirdly, I will talk about the issue of oversight and the Senate. On Friday, I was in my County on the invitation of my Governor. There were some donors who were pooled together by some organization called Frontier Counties Development Council (FCDC). These donors said that they had to go through that particular organization for them to fund the Arid and Semi-arid Land (ASAL) counties. Turkana, Isiolo, Marsabit, Mandera, Wajir, Garissa, Lamu and Tana River were represented. Fortunately or unfortunately, I was the only Senator who was there. I think that this is something that we seriously need to discuss as a Senate. When it comes to funds, the body that is supposed to oversight all the monies that go to the counties is the Senate. If we do not take our work seriously, we will just become irrelevant. So, when we talk of being bipartisan, these are areas we really need to work on because we cannot speak of being bipartisan when it just interests us, as an individual and as a party. Therefore, Mr. Speaker, Sir, I want us to challenge ourselves; the leadership and yourself as the Speaker to assert our position; we must make this Senate relevant. If we do not do that, then I do not see why we are sitting in this House. When we are actually invited to meetings, we do not have anything to talk about. You will find that a governor has his own funds as well as the Members of the National Assembly. But when it comes to Senators, we are just flower girls, like somebody has just mentioned. So, Mr. Speaker, Sir, can you help this Senate to become relevant? The other point I wanted to raise is the issue of the Senate sitting outside this particular House. This is a matter we discussed even in the last Parliament. For the Senate to be seen as being relevant and to be seen to be working, we should be able to have sittings in various counties so that the impact and effect of the counties is felt. Mr. Speaker, Sir, the other issue I wanted to raise is with regards to the Devolution Conference. In the last Parliament, we had a lot of issues concerning the Devolution Conference because we were not considered as equal partners in that function, yet this House is part and parcel of the conference. Since you are new with this particular conference – although you have been on the other side – it is good to go back to the records and see the concerns of this particular House and the Senate as a whole before we agree to attend the upcoming conference. Thank you, Mr. Speaker, Sir, I beg to support.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker, Sir, for giving me this opportunity to contribute to the Motion that is before us. First of all, I want to thank God for allowing us to be back to the Second Session in this House. It was a very long recess; we are back and

Mr. Speaker, Sir, allow me first to welcome all Senators to Nairobi. Welcome back from your various counties. Officially, as a host Senator together with my other colleagues from the cities of Kisumu and Mombasa – we are only three from cities - we welcome you back to Nairobi. We look forward to the work that we will do in this Session of the Senate. Mr. Speaker, Sir, I associate myself with many of the remarks that have been made by fellow Senators with respect to our outlook towards this Session. First of all, I am grateful to be nominated to be one of the Members of the Senate Business Committee

Thank you, Mr. Speaker, Sir. I rise pursuant to Standing Order No. 98 (1) on closure of debates, which, with your indulgence, I would like to read. It provides that:- “After the question on a Motion the Mover of which has a right of reply has been proposed, a Senator rising in his or her place may claim to move “That the Mover be now called upon to reply.” Mr. Speaker, Sir, I rise to seek that the Mover be called upon to reply, reason being that we need to close this debate to enable the said Committee to proceed and plan for the business for tomorrow and those other days.

Hon. Senators, I will put the question forthwith.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker, Sir. I can see the enthusiasm that the Senators have in so far as debating very important matters of the Senate are concerned. It is important that this Committee retreats right now to

What is your point of order, Sen. Outa?

On a point of order, Mr. Speaker, Sir. With due respect to the Senate Majority Leader, could he tell this House who the ”characters” are? Is that language that can bring harmony to this House? The language he is using is derogative. Could he kindly apologize, if he really wants us to treat this House as the ‘Upper House,’ where people can reason together? The direction he is heading to, he is calling hell to fall on us.

Mr. Speaker, Sir, I insist that I am only following in the footsteps of Sen. Orengo, Sen. (Prof.) Ongeri, Sen. Wetangula and Sen. Mutula Kilonzo Jnr. who spoke passionately about the desire to strengthen this House and stop what they called political madness. Sen. (Prof.) Ongeri was even more categorical that as an elder he cannot just sit and watch people run a charade out there. If there are characters out there who do not recognize the Senate and the constitutional offices, it must not include a Senator who is elected to represent the people of Kenya in this House. I insist that the collective respect of the Senate of the Republic of Kenya, depends on the behavior, manner and conduct of the individual Senators in this House. Collectively, 67 of us become the ambassadors and representatives of what the Senate stands for. We will be more than happy to see that a Senate that has senior counsels, respectable lawyers, elected politicians, party leaders--- This is the only House that has party leaders; the ‘Lower House’ does not have. Such a respectable House must lead the nation in the recognition of constitutional institutions, that is, the presidency, Judiciary and every other office. If the Senators will pontify out there and say that we are the

Hon. Senators, the House has just approved Members to serve in the Senate Business Committee (SBC). At the rise of the House, the Committee will proceed for its first sitting in the Second Session. So, all Members of the Committee are, hereby, invited to this meeting to be held in Committee Room No.4 at 4.30 p.m.

Hon. Senators, the Senate, therefore, stands adjourned until Wednesday, 14th February, 2018 at 2.30 p.m. The Senate rose at 4.25 p.m.