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{
    "id": 111418,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/111418/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 373,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Mr. Mbiuki",
    "speaker_title": "The Assistant Minister for Agriculture",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 79,
        "legal_name": "Japhet M. Kareke Mbiuki",
        "slug": "japhet-kareke-mbiuki"
    },
    "content": " Thank you, Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, for giving me the opportunity to contribute to this Motion on the Draft Constitution. From the outset, I want to take this opportunity to congratulate the Committee of Experts for work well done. I would also like to take this opportunity to congratulate our colleagues in the PSC for really walking the talk and being able to unite and come up with a more improved version of the Draft Constitution. I will mostly dwell on representation. I would like to support the representation of the people on Chapter 7. We have had challenges of unfair representation in this House. This House is the most skewed House we ever had. There is no semblance of fair representation in terms of population and geographical size. The Committee of Experts has articulated well and has gone a great way to try and address the issue of unfair representation. They have come up with a formula. They have come up with a population quota which will enable us to achieve the much cherished fair representation in this House. Currently, there are constituencies which are far much bigger than others yet all the devolved funds are channeled to the constituencies, therefore, making some of us very aggrieved. When you look at Chapter 7 on representation of the people, you will realize that the population quota which is being used together with the deviation of maximum of 40 percent for the cities and the ASAL areas, I think it is adequate and will be able to serve the purpose of fair representation in this House. During last elections, there were some people who said there was rigging in some of the constituencies because of the massive numbers. Never again should massive numbers be construed as stolen votes as it happened in my constituency, Nithi. Most of the post-election violence which occurred in this country--- Some people mistook massive numbers to mean that the elections were rigged which was also confirmed in the Kriegler Report. Therefore, I am here to support the representation of the people as it is well articulated in Chapter 7. We cannot mind an improvement of the same to take care of our brothers in the ASAL areas so that they can also feel comfortable in the representation of the people. One man, one vote should be the cardinal factor when it comes to creation of the constituencies. I would like to comment about devolution. We went to the Kenya Institute of Administration (KIA) at Kabete to try and build consensus. Unfortunately, we were not able to get anywhere. When people talk about marginalization, we, the people of Tharaka, have been marginalized by our big brothers, the Imenti from the other parts of Meru. We are happy and comfortable with the 47 counties because we, the Tharaka, have been taken care of. We support the two tier level of government because our economy will be able to support the same. The Committee of Experts was able to send a memorandum through the Kenyan population. It was well noted that the country cannot be able to support a three tier system which will be very expensive and a big burden to the taxpayers. Therefore, I wholly support the current counties. Through consensus, we will be able to come to a reasonable number."
}