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"id": 1015778,
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"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Uriri, ODM",
"speaker_title": "Hon. Mark Nyamita",
"speaker": {
"id": 13500,
"legal_name": "Mark Ogolla Nyamita",
"slug": "mark-ogolla-nyamita"
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"content": " Thank you, Hon. Speaker, for the opportunity. First of all, let me congratulate the Departmental Committee on Justice and Legal Affairs for a job well done within a short time and for the Report that they presented to this House. I also agree that this House has the right to approve or disapprove nominees and we are not a House that rubberstamps. The Committee has demonstrated this. At least, we are safe. I congratulate the nominee for the Registrar of Political Parties, Ms. Ann Nderitu, and the others who have been approved. However, I slightly disagree with the Committee on the rejection of the candidate, Mr. William Makorre. In seconding the Bill, the Vice-Chairperson, Hon. (Dr.) Otiende Amollo, alluded to the fact that the candidate did not have clearance. I think that is not true. Even in their Report, it is indicating as such. The fact that he did not come with the certificates, they acknowledged in their Report that it was still in the process. Today, Hon. Speaker, if you apply to get clearance from the Director of Criminal Investigations (DCI), even the booking will take you like a month. This young man comes from Migori and I know him too well. This young man has been to my office even before I got elected. At some point, I even paid for his fees. This young man did not know that he was going to be appointed. So, when he got the notification of appointment, he did make an application to the DCI for that clearance. He presented to the Committee that very receipt. This House independently has a mechanism of writing to these other authorities, including the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) and the DCI, to get an independent report to corroborate what every candidate presents. So, to say that simply because he did not present the actual certificate that was still in progress is why he failed, is not true. It is not true because if they checked, the report might have been presented to this Parliament and that candidate would have been cleared. Number two, Hon. Speaker, in the wisdom of the President, he noted that this is a young man. If today we were to say that everyone with ten years’ experience, clearly, then we shall have locked out the youth. Many of the young people finish university at about 25 years of age. If you add another ten years plus to their age, they would be above the youth age. In this country, even as we head towards election, over 70 per cent of the population are young people. There is no better person to understand the youth than the youth themselves. I ask the Chair and the Committee that, in as much as our hands are tied by the law that experience must be ten years, to move an amendment so that our young people can be accommodated in this. The other issue that I want to challenge, and it was explained by the Vice-Chairperson as well, is that this young man is going to be partisan because, apparently, he has been a youth leader for the Governor of Migori. I think that is not the case. This is a young man who has studied political science. As soon as he finished, he went for attachment in the Governor’s office, not for the individual, but for the office. If someone came to my office, as a Member of Parliament, as a student of political science for attachment, that does not mean he is partisan. So, he was only attached to the office to try and learn how that works exactly. This young man comes from a minority group and the disabled. I want to wish him well in his future endeavors. I challenge the Committee that if we are to put ten years’ experience, we are going to exclude our youth. The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor."
}