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{
    "id": 1049315,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1049315/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 24,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Nominated, ODM",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Wilson Sossion",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13171,
        "legal_name": "wilson sossion",
        "slug": "wilson-sossion"
    },
    "content": " Thank you, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker. Before I was interrupted, I had underscored the importance of the people of Kenya exercising their sovereign power directly through referendum. Of course, the Constitution of Kenya, 2010 gave the people of Kenya the power to exercise their sovereignty directly and also through this House. Looking at the principles of governance, our national values, our Constitution foresaw a situation where governance would be a key issue in this country. Even looking at the context of the various countries within the region, the biggest problem they have had after Independence has been good governance, democratic governance and participation of the people. Indeed, I wish to laud the Republic of Kenya. When we compare ourselves with many countries in Africa, our level of democracy is one of the best in the world and, indeed, when we passed the Constitution of Kenya 2010, implementing various aspects that are envisaged in the Constitution should have been done through various statutes. One of them is referendum. So, to me, this Referendum Bill is one aspect of implementing the various provisions of the Constitution, particularly inviting the people to exercise their democratic rights and also engage in public participation. While Article 255 of the Constitution envisages referendum only in amending the Constitution in Articles 256 and 257, I believe that Kenya, as a democracy, has matured to a level that it can engage in referenda in other areas. Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, looking at this Bill in Clause 8, it talks very clearly that a referendum may be conducted on the basis of an Act of Parliament which specifies the nature and purpose of the referendum, meaning that we may not limit the people of Kenya to only conducting referenda on constitutional amendments. It can be done in other aspects. Indeed, we have had two referenda, but with respect to the Report of the Joint Committee of CIOC and JLAC, framing of referendum question will be key and, in fact, at the moment, people are questioning and debating whether we should have multiple choices or one question. The most important thing is to have simple questions that the public can participate and exercise their sovereignty and their decisions well. So, indeed, the framing of referenda questions will be very key. It is important to have simple and clear questions so that voting and taking decisions can be very easy. I also agree with decision Number 8 that we do not need regulations. The Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) should not make regulations. A lot of legislations were enacted by this House to implement the Constitution, but we undid it by asking State agencies to make regulations and those regulations have been used to undermine the spirit and letter of the Constitution and also the law. I believe if we have a very good piece of legislation to guide 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."
}