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{
    "id": 1094265,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1094265/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 147,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Suna East, ODM",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Junet Nuh",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 2840,
        "legal_name": "Junet Sheikh Nuh",
        "slug": "junet-sheikh-nuh"
    },
    "content": "(j) appears to have had an unjustifiable delay in its publication or laying before Parliament;… Hon. Speaker, the IEBC has been in existence for many years. The Campaign Finance Act is very clear that the regulations on campaign financing should be brought to Parliament 12 months before the general elections. They say delay is the enemy of progress. The IEBC was aware that the next General Elections are going to be held on 9th August, 2022. The IEBC knew that campaigns for the next General Elections will require financing. It knows that they are required by law to present draft regulations to this House on financing of campaigns for approval before they take effect. The IEBC knows that the law requires them to make these regulations at least 12 months before the General Elections and yet it has failed to make any campaign finance regulations, including for all the by-elections that have been held in the last four years. It has now purported to forward a draft regulation for the next General Elections, less than a week before the absolute deadline for consideration and approval by both Houses. Hon. Speaker, why am I reading this pattern is because I do not want Kenyans to blame Parliament for not doing its work in terms of putting up the required regime of laws that will make the next General Elections not to be conducted in a proper manner. As I said earlier, the IEBC know very well that the Campaign Financing Act required them to bring those regulations 12 months before the General Elections. Secondly, the Statute Instruments Act requires IEBC to have done public participation before they bring the regulations to Parliament. That is a requirement of law. When we donated as Parliament to those institutions power to do the regulations, one requirement was to do public participation. I have not seen anywhere where the IEBC has done any public participation before they brought those regulations to the House. More importantly, how do you expect the National Assembly to pass those regulations when you have brought them a week to the deadline and then you go and tell Kenyans: “The matter now is in Parliament and is no longer with us!” You had four years to bring those regulations. Remember in the last Parliament, we passed the Campaign Finance Act but we said it would take effect in the year 2016. But we deferred it to take effect in the year 2022. So, IEBC was fully aware that that Act is in place and would take effect in 2022. They should have brought regulations way before last week on Thursday. I have even seen that the IEBC has gone further ahead and published the list of how much money you can use in every constituency, ward, county, president or governor race. All that were published yesterday in a gazette notice. Hon. Speaker, we must follow what the Constitution dictates. For example, when those regulations are before the Committee on Delegated Legislation, the Committee in a secondary measure is required to do public participation by asking for public views. They have to follow the way a regulation should be handled in Parliament. That will take us into the 12 months that the law has prescribed for those regulations to be in place. So, I want to seek your indulgence under Standing Order 210, first whether the IEBC is in order to ambush Parliament by bringing regulations at the 11th hour. Secondly, whether the Committee on Delegated Legislation as they are now, will be operating within the law and the Campaign Finance Act, because the Committee requires time to process those regulations; in order to agree or to annul, and then they will bring them to the House. Is the Committee in its rightful place to analyse these regulations as per Standing Order 210, which is very clear about the delay? It talks about delay of presentation of instruments to this House. Hon. Speaker, without further ado, I want to bring to the attention of the House that, through you, these regulations are not before this House in a proper manner. The House cannot sit 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."
}