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{
    "id": 1067636,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1067636/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 156,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "North Imenti, JP",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Rahim Dawood",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 2572,
        "legal_name": "Abdul Rahim Dawood",
        "slug": "abdul-rahim-dawood"
    },
    "content": " Thank you, Hon. Deputy Speaker. I want to state that I support BBI and believe it is the way to go. I want to congratulate the Judicial Service Commission (JSC) for nominating Martha Koome to be the next Chief Justice, and William Ouko as the Supreme Court Judge. The handshake between President Uhuru Kenyatta and Rt. Hon. Raila Odinga was a game changer. From 2018, the country has been running smoothly and we do not have any more issues. I was in the 2005 referendum of the bananas and oranges which gave birth to ODM. I was still leading the 2010 referendum of Yes and No in North Imenti. When His Excellency the former President Mwai Kibaki visited Meru, he told us that 20 per cent of the Constitution was not right and that we will rectify it in future. The future is now. We are now changing the 20 per cent that was not right and this will not be the last time to amend the Constitution. We will be called in future to propose more amendments to the Constitution. Hon. Speaker, when the boundary delimitation was done in 2010 by the Andrew Ligale Commission, there was a lot of gerrymandering because we just got one constituency in Meru County whereas we should have got three. We are happy with the proposed 70 new constituencies. People are saying that Mt. Kenya has been given 42 constituencies but it is not true because we have only been given 17. We have been given those constituencies by right and not because of the gerrymandering as seen in the Ligale Commission where areas with a 100,000 population were allocated constituencies. The Bill proposes 35 per cent allocation to counties but people are asking us: If you cannot give 15 per cent, how possible will it be for you to allocate 35 per cent? I want to state that in the Division of Revenue Bill that was passed last, the county allocation was at 30 per cent including the conditional grant. That was for the audited accounts for 2016/2017 Financial Year. The BBI is suggesting that 35 per cent will not be for audited accounts by the National Assembly but whatever will be presented by the Auditor-General even if it has not been approved by Parliament. The Bill is also good because the NG-CDF has now been put in the Constitution and we will not have an instance where it is taken to the courts and declared null and void. There is the Ward Fund which will not be tied to a governor. When many of our colleagues go to talk shows, they say that we are increasing the membership of Parliament to 640 Members. That is untrue. When they say that we will have 640 MPs in the National Assembly, it is a misconception. If we will have 360 Members plus six nominated MPs, we will have 366 Members in the National Assembly. If we will have 94 Members in the Senate, one male and one female, we will have a total of 460 Members because there will be no nominated Members in the Senate. One third of that will be 150 Members less 47 from the Senate and less three nominated from the National Assembly being one youth and two disabled Members. That will make a total of 104 Members who have to be nominated in case gender equality will not be achieved. As we talk here today, we have female MPs who are 23 in number. So, the maximum number we will be talking about is 81Members. If you add 81 to 366 you will get a National Assembly of 447 MPs and 94 Senators. That will make 541 Members and not 640 Members that people have been talking about. We expect to have female MPs because of the one-third gender rule that will be applicable by political parties when they nominate MPs using their party lists. 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."
}