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{
    "id": 1049358,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1049358/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 67,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Emuhaya, ANC",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Omboko Milemba",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13328,
        "legal_name": "Jeremiah Omboko Milemba",
        "slug": "jeremiah-omboko-milemba"
    },
    "content": "process that is driven by the people themselves. In this case, the one that shall be coming has been driven by the people themselves. I would, therefore, wish that as we speak on this, and especially when we move to the Third Reading where we shall have amendments, we, the legislators, will look at the law without attaching it to any event that is coming. After all, we have had three or two referendums in this country before and they were there without this law. But we have been given a chance to make a law that will now be very clear and straight on how referendums will be conducted in this country. I want to remove the fear in a few Kenyans who feel that this law is specifically being made for the Building Bridges Initiative (BBI), for instance. I would want to dissuade any legislator who may go in that direction, for us to lose the real gist of what we want. I have a background of history and government and that is what I taught. Between 1965 and 1966, for those who care to look at the constitutional amendments in Kenya then, the amendments were hurriedly done and they were very many. So, when we taught history and government to the students, we told them that all these packages of amendments were the ‘Odinga’ constitutional amendments. That is because at that particular time, Jaramogi Odinga was having problems with Jomo Kenyatta. So many laws were made, some of which we have carried to date - for instance, this one of defecting from one party to another and losing your seat. This was part of what we taught as ‘Odinga amendments' and they are quite a number. I am dissuading ourselves from imagining that this law we want to make will specifically be for the BBI or for an individual and, in the process, we miss what needs to be done correctly at the expense of that feeling. If we do that, later on, we shall be required to make amendments and, maybe, it will be too late for ourselves. We may ask the two committees – and I know there are lawyers there and I am not one myself - to clearly specify what we may require for a referendum that seeks constitutional amendments like the one we are dealing with now and the one that may just require an advisory of the public to the Government really not requiring a particular action. From my background as student of history, we have these two terminologies: Referendum which directly deals with constitutional amendments and requires the Government to take action and that is why the Government must invest in it. Then we have a plebiscite. I even consulted my senior Hon. T.J. Kajwang’, but I do not agree with the advice he gave me. Plebiscites are usually sometimes called advisory referendums. The Government does not need to completely take action. It may just take the opinion of the people. I think many examples were given here on such like matters, including what the Speaker talked about that particular day when we began this debate. So, we have to differentiate between the plebiscites and the referendum. Therefore, in this law, we may bring together all the matters that will concern the two or have separate laws for plebiscites and referendum. Having said that, I want to mention just a few things that I think would possibly require amendments in the Third Reading; the first one being the committees that the Mover talked about. He seemed to say that the committees should be spilt into small groups and not coalesced around an individual. That would not work for us. But in as much as the committees will be split, they must have somebody around whom they operate for the system to work clearly. I would want us to later on look at the committees with an intention of amending that there is a committee or a group that is overall for this referendum. The other thing is verification of signatures by the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC). This has been spoken to by many speakers, but I think I have a different approach on it. Whereas a few speakers before me have said that we only need to look at whether 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."
}