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"id": 1065749,
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"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Isiolo North, KPP",
"speaker_title": "Hon. Hassan Hulufo",
"speaker": {
"id": 13348,
"legal_name": "Hassan Oda Hulufo",
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"content": "We have His Excellency, our beloved President, Uhuru Muigai Kenyatta and the Rt. Hon. Prime Minister, Raila Amollo Odinga leading the way. We all know what happened after the disputed presidential election of 2017. Following the repeat presidential election where His Excellency Uhuru Kenyatta was declared the winner, we found ourselves in a very difficult situation as a country. We, for the first time, encountered a situation where we had a constitutionally elected President who was running the country and another where a people’s President was sworn in. We found ourselves with two Presidents: The President who was sworn in as per the Constitution and one who was sworn in using the same Constitution but who carried the title of the people’s president. We all know how much it cost us as a result of the prevailing conflict then and the clashes between the police and the demonstrators. Therefore, as we discuss and debate this proposed amendment, it is important for us, as Members of Parliament, to appreciate the realities which informed the initiation of this amendment. As it is currently constituted, it can fit the bill of being an amendment through popular initiative. We appreciate that, during the disputed presidential election, our President garnered 8.2 million votes and the Rt. Hon. Raila Amollo Odinga garnered 6.8 million votes. These are two individuals, or two principals in this country, who were supported by millions of voters. Therefore, they used that as an opportunity and came together to do the “Handshake” and initiate a process which they thought was going to address the underlying causes of post-election violence. When the BBI taskforce was formed and they went round the country to collect views of Kenyans on what they felt needed to be amended in the current Constitution, different interest groups in different counties presented their memoranda verbally and also in written form. It is also true to state that not all suggestions found themselves into the final product, which is the Bill we are discussing today. I come from a pastoral county. I can confirm that there are many issues we raised. There are many issues which we presented which, unfortunately, have not been captured. Others have been captured. We also appreciate that no interested party will have everything that he or she desires incorporated into a constitution or into a proposed constitutional amendment during a constitution-making process. There are a few areas which we are not comfortable with. Various experts appeared before the Joint Committee of the National Assembly and the Senate to give their views on whether the National Assembly, which is the law-making body of this country, is allowed to open up this Bill and subject it to further amendments. After going through the Report, I realise that a majority of those who gave their views were of the opinion that the National Assembly cannot only serve as a conveyer belt, and that we can use our powers of law-making, the powers donated to us by the Kenyans who voted for us, to open up this Bill and try to see what we can amend. Unfortunately, looking at the conclusions of the Committee Report, that is not reflected. If you look at their Report, it is only the Kenya Law Reform Commission (KLRC) which indicated that it cannot be opened up for further debate. Individuals who presented their views like the President of the Law Society of Kenya (LSK), the representative of the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) and also lawyer Kibe Mungai, indicated that seeing ourselves merely as a conveyer belt was not in order. Having noted that, I would like now to look at some clauses of the proposed amendment Bill. The first one is the insertion of a new clause under Article 10. We know that, as per our current Constitution, Article 10 relates to national values and principles of governance. Inclusion of regional integration and cohesion is something I see as very important. We are part of the African continent and we are also part of the East African federation. Having a clause that will 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."
}