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{
    "id": 1028880,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1028880/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 160,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Kang’ata",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 1826,
        "legal_name": "Irungu Kang'ata",
        "slug": "irungu-kangata"
    },
    "content": "Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, ethnically-divided societies’ constitutional design tends to differ with societies that are not ethnically-divided. I will give an example of Belgium, Switzerland and Northern Ireland where you have a major division between the Protestants and the Catholics. They have a democracy called Consociational democracy. It has been explained very well by a writer called Arend Lijphart in his Article called ‘Constitutional Design for Divided Societies’ that was published way back in 1994 by the Journal of Democracy. He has also written another book called Patterns of Democracy. When you read his ideas, he argues that in an ethnically-divided society, you need to promote consensus democracy. It has certain characteristics. Number one, it has an expanded executive or a grand coalition. Number two, it has a mutual veto. Number three, it has a proportional representation electoral system. When you look at Switzerland, Belgium, Northern Ireland and other countries in Asia like Lebanon, where you have a division of the Shiite Muslim and Sunni Muslim and the Christians, you will see that democracy works well by ensuring representation of each and every segmented group in that society in the executive. Therefore, BBI is proposing to establish that democracy in Kenya. This form of democracy is not new in Kenya at all. Between the year 2008 and 2007 Kenya was a Consociational democracy. We inserted Section 15 (a) in the 1969 Constitution to establish the position of a Prime Minister. That Government has been evaluated as one of the most inclusive governments that Kenya has had since Independence. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, the drafters of the Constitution 2010 thought they can remedy that problem of ethnic divisions in two ways. Number one, they came up with devolution. Number two, they established centripetalism, that is, electoral rules that are geared to give incentives to politicians to come up with coalitions that are quite large that they can accommodate everyone. Therefore, we provided for Article---"
}