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{
    "id": 1019241,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1019241/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 311,
    "type": "other",
    "speaker_name": "",
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    "content": "The Constitution of Kenya, 2010, wholly supports multiparty democracy as you know recognizing it as a human right and also as a major anchor for egalitarianism. From the time multi-partyism was introduced in the country in 1992, many political parties have been formed as vehicles through which political parties’ political leaders are elected to power to represent the peoples’ interests in the governance of our country. Even though some gains have been made as envisioned by our Constitution, different challenges persist and continue to threaten the democratic space as well as the spirit and values of multi-party democracy. There is hence need to build on the key benefits gained and have the challenges effectively addressed. Allow me to appreciate that despite the different challenges the democratic space in this country has continues to expand and characterized by different democratic activities. Currently, there are different political parties. In fact, just today we had an international Webinar on the day for democracy and we have a total of 71 political parties. Is that a good or bad thing? I think at the basic level it is a good thing. Whether or not we will consolidate into much bigger ideologies is for us to discern, but yes, we have a lot of opportunities through our different political parties. Despite the country hang enjoyed the privileges that come with multi-party democracy as you have seen with the sheer number of our political parties, there are several factors that have recently been observed which ail our democratic space. We need to look at them and make sure those gaps are dealt with. The gaps include: weak implementation of some of the provisions of our Constitution and our policies and laws, endemic corruption that has taken hold and captured some of our institutions and the various human rights violations that we have seen. In fact, some of our Senators have suffered that in the recent past. They are also delays in some of the recommendations of The Truth, Justice and Reconciliation Commission (TJRC) of Kenya and others that would have made our democratic space even more robust and constitutional. As the Chairperson of the Centre for Multiparty Democracy - Kenya, allow me to zero in a little bit on political parties. The laws guiding the financing of political parties are in skewed in favour of the major political parties in the country such that the parties deemed to have numbers or representation are the ones that are funded by tax payers to the detriment of other smaller parties. The approach of winner takes it all is definitely disenfranchising some of the smaller parties as well as constricting the space for multiparty democracy."
}