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"id": 1067081,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1067081/?format=api",
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"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Kipkelion East, JP",
"speaker_title": "Hon. Joseph Limo",
"speaker": {
"id": 1915,
"legal_name": "Joseph Kirui Limo",
"slug": "joseph-kirui-limo"
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"content": "Members. Almost 50 per cent coming to this House, assuming that we will not achieve the two- thirds principle. That is the truth. As we are talking, most of the Members here, let us say the truth, since 2013, have been hovelling around in this town in terms of infrastructure. We do not have offices. That is the truth. Even the Members who have offices here are actually having corridors. Very few have windows. You know. In fact, with the COVID-19 period, our offices are not proper. So, it will actually cost another close to between Kshs15 billion and Kshs20 billion if you want a good Parliament. You must also be ready to build another office block other than the one that is coming up. So, I am talking about cost. It will be costly. Let us not bury our heads in the sand and say that we are supporting. It is not enough for me to support or to oppose. But the truth is, that it is going to cost this country a lot. You know the people we are calling Wanjiku, Odhiambo, Chebet or Aden are not experts. They do not understand. So, they think it will be very cheap. That is why we are telling them it will not be costly. The biggest reason the BBI was started, when the President, Uhuru Kenyatta, and the Rt. Hon. Raila Odinga, met and had a handshake, is that we had been having fights and we want to kill the fights, so that we will not be fighting. Therefore, when they met, they said the reason we have been fighting is because winner-takes-it-all. If we are running an election and we have around two or three competitors and one wins, assuming that we have this structure, the President will have all the people below the President, the prime minister and all sorts of people will take positions. What remains, number two, will only have one option which is to become head of opposition, which is okay. Right now, at least, there is a place. Previously, there was nowhere. You would just go to the streets and disappear. There was no space for number two to come to this House. Now we have the head of opposition. However, the right thing to have been done is to strengthen that office. Other than the person who is number two having issues, all the supporters who will be helping to campaign all over the country will not have positions to share. What the BBI should have provided was a serious shadow cabinet, so that when there is a cabinet which is appointed by the person who has won, there will be a serious cabinet appointed by the head of the opposition and it is fully funded. It will reduce the pain of losing. There is a very serious pain of losing an election. Right now, the reason we are not focusing on that office of the head of opposition is that all of us are believing that we are going to win. The truth is that one candidate will win, with the whole team. They will take all the positions. Will the winner-takes-it-all have been resolved? No. It will not. So, the best should have been to strengthen that office of the head of opposition so that they will have fully funded shadow cabinet ministers. Then, competition will reduce and the pain will be reduced because they will be paid. It will be a good thing for this country. That will be a reality. But the fact that we believe that we are going to win, and I am going to lose, is actually preparing another big problem for this country. On representation, the current Constitution had made a lot of ground. It was one of the best and progressive constitutions in the world, in terms of affirmative action for women. All over the world, there is no other country which was really moving in the right direction than Kenya. The 47 Woman Representatives who were elected into this House was the right system to build capacity for our women. Once you were elected as a woman and you came here, it was the right thing to do so that we can build capacity. Therefore, they are prepared to even run for governorship. Why? Because they were elected all over the counties. In fact, there was even suggestion that if we want more women to come to the National Assembly, the best thing was to introduce another position for a woman member of county assembly to be elected across the constituency, so that capacity is 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."
}