Entry Instance

HTTP 200 OK
Allow: GET, PUT, PATCH, DELETE, HEAD, OPTIONS
Content-Type: application/json
Vary: Accept

{
    "id": 1097817,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1097817/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 121,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Suba South, ODM",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. John Mbadi",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 110,
        "legal_name": "John Mbadi Ng'ong'o",
        "slug": "john-mbadi"
    },
    "content": "hope they are going to get into this Commission and do a job that is transparent, work that will be verifiable, and work that Kenyans can support. As to the fate of the other three commissioners, I know there are people who have said we have called for those commissioners to go home, et cetera. I chair a party. My party has not pronounced itself on what to do with those three commissioners. Probably we will, because I am not the sole decision maker. What I know is that if the outcome of an election that you preside over has been annulled by the Supreme Court—the highest court in the land—you should ask yourself hard questions. So, I leave it to the conscience of those three commissioners: Before you blame anyone, ask yourselves. You presided over an election that actually set a precedent on this continent. Do you think that, morally, it is justifiable for you to preside over another election? That is a question that these commissioners will have to answer. And it is something that we need to debate going forward. Even if we are going to allow them to preside over another election, they must convince us. They must show some kind of remorse. Two, they must convince us that they are doing things differently. They cannot do things the same way they prepared for the 2017 elections, which created the problem that we are in. Being the first country in the continent where a presidential election was annulled speaks volumes. The three commissioners are in office. Please prove to Kenyans and demonstrate to us that there is something you are going to do differently in 2022. This country cannot again entertain what happened in 2017, especially after the Covid-19 pandemic. Our economy cannot be resilient enough to withstand disruption after the 2022 election. I want to plead with all of us to tone down our political rhetoric and concentrate on preparing for the 2022 election. If there is a place where the process seems to be wrong, we need to correct. My final comment, again, is to IEBC. Problems with elections begin with party primaries. I know Kenyans have blamed our political parties for not managing party primaries well. I have been an active participant in party primaries and I have never faced an opposition having won my nomination unopposed. I have always competed, from 2007 to 2013 and 2017. In fact, I tell people that I am the only national chairman of a party who has faced party primaries in a serious party. That demonstrates democracy in my party. Political parties need time to conduct party primaries. You cannot give us one week or four days. What IEBC should wait for from political parties is the list of their candidates. They should not restrict us to four days. They should just tell us the date on which we need to provide them with the list of those who have been nominated. We can stagger nomination within four months. As political parties, we do not have the machinery to conduct a general election. The party primaries we conduct in this country are like a general election. You cannot do that in four days as a political party, without even resources. The ODM as a party conducts nomination in 290 constituencies using Ksh400 million. It is not practical. What we are asking is, allow political parties to stagger their nominations so as to conduct them in a manner that is transparent and that would convince their members that the spirit of democracy has been lived up to. That is what I want to ask the IEBC. Please, on the timelines you have given, I want to ask that you drop the idea of conditioning political parties to four days of party primaries. Hon. Speaker, with those many remarks, I support the Motion to approve the four nominees. Thank you."
}