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{
"id": 1017234,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1017234/?format=api",
"text_counter": 347,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Ruaraka, ODM",
"speaker_title": "Hon. T.J. Kajwang’",
"speaker": {
"id": 2712,
"legal_name": "Tom Joseph Kajwang'",
"slug": "kajwang-tom-joseph-francis"
},
"content": "(2) Equality includes the full and equal enjoyment of all rights and fundamental freedoms. (3) Women and men have the right to equal treatment, including the right to equal opportunities in political, economic, cultural and social spheres. (4) The State shall not discriminate directly or indirectly against any person on any ground, including race, sex, pregnancy, marital status, health status, ethnic or social origin, color, age, disability, religion, conscience, belief, culture, dress, language or birth.” But when you turn the page, it says different things. It says- “(5) A person shall not discriminate directly or indirectly against another person on any of the grounds specified or contemplated in clause (4). (6) To give full effect to the realisation of the rights guaranteed under this Article, the State shall take legislative and other measures, including affirmative action programmes and policies designed to redress any disadvantage suffered by individuals or groups because of past discrimination.” Now, then we have Article 81 (b). What is the point if this Constitution has spoken so closely about equal rights, that everyone is the same, it is a beautiful world, we were all born equal and we are all awesome? Then Article 80 (1) (b) starts talking differently. It now says that some people should be elected in a different way which is now different from what has been expressed in Article 27. We had started with Article 1 that says that we the people are equal before the face of the law and before God. This is now the discussion that we must make: the contradiction which the Constitution has imposed on itself. Hon. Speaker, everyone has said, if there was an intention that gender parity had to be ingrained in the Constitution, nothing would have been more difficult for Hon. (Dr.) Otiende’s group and the rest to say so very clearly. This is why, for example, Article 101 is what kicks out the general election. Article 102 talks about ‘term’ which is tied to the ‘general election.’ It must be a general election then when you go to Article 103 which I did not hear anybody quoting, it is the only Article that talks about how a Member vacates office. It says- “(1) The office of a Member of Parliament becomes vacant— (a) if the member dies; (b) if, during any session of Parliament, the member is absent from eight sittings of the relevant House without permission, in writing, from the Speaker, and is unable to offer a satisfactory explanation for the absence to the relevant committee; (c) if the member is otherwise removed from office under this Constitution or legislation enacted under Article 80.” What Chief Justice Maraga did is not removal, it is dissolving. He is not removing anybody anywhere. You can only be removed here on the basis of Chapter Six, for example. You can only be removed if you have, for example, abdicated your responsibilities in your political party. It is removal not dissolution. So, this Article does not apply to what the Hon. Chief Justice is talking about. It then says that if a Member resigns, you have to resign and write a letter to Hon. Speaker, then you have left party or you are an Independent candidate and among other provisions. Nothing in this Constitution anticipates what Article 261 of the Constitution is talking about. If the drafters of the Constitution wanted to see that there is another way of vacating your office as a Member of Parliament, this is where they would have put it. So, I do not know how the Chief Justice with all his wisdom, and I know he is a wise man, did not conjure up all these things together to notice that his direction under Article 261 of the Constitution was now an impossibility. He says that he only 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."
}