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{
    "id": 1094827,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1094827/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 357,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Nairobi CWR, ODM",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. (Ms.) Esther Passaris",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 12475,
        "legal_name": "Esther Passaris",
        "slug": "esther-passaris"
    },
    "content": " Thank you, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker. I stand to support the Constitution of Kenya (Amendment) Bill (National Assembly Bill No.19 of 2019) brought by Hon. Florence Mutua. As I stand here, I support that the party list should be given after the elections. I also commend my colleague from Nairobi, Hon. Nixon Korir, for everything that he has said. He actually took a position based on the amendment and the need to have more women in Parliament. I also like the way he ended when he said we will reach a point where we do not have to say girlfriends. We will say more men. It is really a shame that we have made nominations look like an award. We call women slay queens, flower girls and girlfriends. This is the problem with lack of gender balance where you do not have enough women. So, you look down on the other gender. If we have the party list given after the elections, we avoid what we were trying to achieve with the BBI – the winner takes it all. This country has seen elections become competitions that lead to death of your constituents, death of innocent people, maiming of people, insults and hatred. If Hon. Shebesh was nominated to this House after I won the Women Representative position, I would have welcomed her properly because we conducted elections in a civil manner. We were not enemies. We were two women looking to serve a county with a lot of passion and love for this county. The reason why the President in his wisdom came up with the position of Chief Administrative Secretary (CAS), which actually ended up giving Hon. Shebesh a position, was because the party lists being given 45 days before the election ends up omitting people who should probably be in this House. We have a lot of people who lose elections. When Hon. Shakeel was speaking here, he said that the person who contested against him should have known better. He should have known that he should not have contested because he couldn’t have won. Now we are going to elections to choose the best leader. Sometimes it might not have been a free and fair election. Sometimes there could have been bribery. Sometimes the best person did not get that job. Are the people who voted for the person who did not win not Kenyans? So, if you have an election where you have 100,000 people, 51,000 elected one person and that person comes to the House, what about the 49,000 people? They also require representation as they are also Kenyans. They chose someone else. They want someone else to lead them. So, when we come up with this amendment, we allow number two to come to the House. When they come to the House, each one has their position. They are Members of Parliament. One will have the position to serve the constituency with the budget given to the constituency. The one who is nominated will come here and also serve the same people. So, when you say that you do not want the list of nominated Members to come after 21 days, it is because you do not feel that the people who did not vote for you also need representation. I know that when we are elected and we become leaders, we represent everyone, but this country is politically divided in such a negative way. I sincerely hope that one day we will combine a proper presidential system with the parliamentary system. 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."
}