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{
    "id": 1094273,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1094273/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 155,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Kipipiri, JP",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Amos Kimunya",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 174,
        "legal_name": "Amos Muhinga Kimunya",
        "slug": "amos-kimunya"
    },
    "content": " Thank you, Hon. Speaker. I rise to weigh in on the same. The issue here is not whether the IEBC has sent the draft Regulations to this House a bit late, but rather the attempt to cover up their inefficiencies. Since the last general election to-date, apart from a few by-elections that the IEBC has conducted, they have largely been lying idle. There is very little that has been happening. They could not even undertake a boundaries review exercise yet we allocate them billions of shillings every year. They could not even undertake the simple task of updating their Campaign Financing Regulations that were suspended in 2016 as a result of the suspension of the relevant Act by this House then. The other day, they came up with a very elaborate programme of what they are going to do. Even within our programme, they did their own responsibilities in terms of submitting the draft Campaign Financing Regulations. They eventually woke up to the reality that they needed to bring the draft Regulations to Parliament. What concerns me is that the Chairman of the IEBC wants to shun their responsibility by saying that they have done their job as IEBC and the problem lies with Parliament, thus setting us up for conflict with the electorate. They are saying that they have done their bit and it is up to Parliament to pass the draft Regulations not knowing that they have brought them to basically fail. I do not even know under what framework the Committee on Delegated Legislation is considering the Regulations because when they come here, they will be out of time anyway. I think we need to send a very clear signal to the IEBC and others who are expected to submit proposals here for ratification that if they do not do so in time, they have themselves to blame. They cannot go out there and start telling the media that they have sent the proposals to Parliament and that we have refused to pass them because we are stakeholders in the election. It is something for which we need to send a very strong signal. If they do not bring those proposals here, let them not then go telling the republic that it is Parliament that has failed. In the same discussions, they are out there talking of a budget of over Kshs40 billion. India conducts election that involves millions of voters and if you look at the cost per vote in this country, you can tell that we are being taken for a ride. You cannot spend Kshs40 billion every five years to conduct an election. Something is fundamentally wrong. There is certainly no way you can spend so much money to just conduct an election. This is something that people have decided because they are there. They want to go for the most expensive paper and layout of the process yet to conduct an election, given the technology in this country, you can even do a poll on WhatsApp and see how much it would cost. With the technology in this country, it should not cost more than Kshs10 billion to conduct an election, but the IEBC tells us that they want to spend Kshs40 billion to conduct an election basically to start creating a situation for people to start procurement-based issues. Between now and 2022, they can start telling people about the much money they have lined up for A, B, C, D, and start looking for tenders and all the other things that go to waste in the procurement system. Let the IEBC wake up to reality. They have one year to conduct an election. I doubt if the Election Campaign Financing Regulations will see the light of day. I am not even sure under what framework the Committee on Delegated Legislation is looking at them because they are already time-barred. The IEBC must take full blame for that. On the other things, let them come to this House as you advised them, Hon. Speaker. We just finished the budget process and I am not sure whether they included the Kshs40 billion in the Budget that we passed two months ago. These are all part of cry-baby tactics of trying to show that unless they are given a certain amount of money, they are not going to guarantee a free and fair election. This does not give confidence to the Kenyan people that we have an IEBC that can be relied upon to deliver credible elections. If you cannot submit Regulations in time after so many years and you cannot come up with a realistic budget, 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."
}