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{
    "id": 1067647,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1067647/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 167,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Baringo North, JP",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. William Cheptumo",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 50,
        "legal_name": "William Cheptumo Kipkiror",
        "slug": "william-kipkiror"
    },
    "content": " Thank you, Hon. Deputy Speaker for giving me a chance to also contribute to this very important Bill. At the outset, I oppose this Bill. Eleven years ago, Kenyans enacted the 2010 Constitution, which is said to be the most promising and progressive in modern Kenya. I had the privilege of participating in the process of making that Constitution as an Assistant Minister for Justice. We integrated in it, national values. It also gave Judiciary, as an institution of governance, independence. The 2010 Constitution gave Kenyans some hope, human dignity and independent institutions of governance. Kenyans expected the Kenya Constitution 2010 to be the foundation on which this country shall move in the right direction. Under the 2010 Constitution, we have had two General Elections, that is, in 2013 and 2017 where we witnessed violence and destruction of property. The question we need to ask ourselves as a House is: if indeed, the challenges that we have as country can be resolved by having a Constitution, why then did we have violence and tribal tension after the promulgation of a promising and progressive Constitution in 2010? My humble submission to this House, and even to this country, is that our challenge as a country is not the Constitution! The challenge - and we must agree to this - is us leaders. If the solution to our challenges is the Constitution, we could not have had street election violence in 2013. If our solution is in the Constitution per se, we could not have had election violence in 2017. The challenge we have today in our country is that we do not believe in the rule of law. When we lose elections, we chose the narrow path; the dangerous path of resolving disputes through violence. That is why we go to the streets to dispute outcomes of elections yet the 2010 Constitution gave us very independent institutions like the Judiciary, which should be able to resolve our issues. Prof. Okoth Ogendo, an expert in constitutional matters, in his article titled Constitutions without Constitutionalism: anAfrican Political Paradox I want to quote what he said. He said that African political elite are fully 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."
}