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{
    "id": 1135866,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1135866/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 117,
    "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": " Thank you, Hon. Deputy Speaker. That must have been a commercial break. Let me get back to the business of the House. Hon. Murugara raised two fundamental issues. I think we need to engage our minds into those issues and address them. I will start with the first issue that he raised regarding the infringement of the Constitution by providing the definition of a political party or political parties as it is in the proposed amendment. He cited that the old law that we are seeking to amend has provided for the definition under Article 260. If you go to Article 260, it refers you to Chapter 7, Part III, which is basically Article 91 of the Constitution. Article 91 of the Constitution provides how a political party should look like. It does not provide for the definition of a political party. It has only provided the architecture, the composition and what you need to look into when you are looking at a political party. It is now that we are providing a legislation that is going to define a political party and unless it infringes directly and explicitly on the provisions under Article 91, then there is nothing wrong. In fact, the current proposal clarifies what a political party should be and there is no contradiction whatsoever with what is provided under Article 91 of the Constitution. It basically provides what you need to look into when you are forming a political party or applying for registration. You must respect the provisions of the Constitution. With all due respect to the lawyer, Hon. Murugara, when it comes to matters legislation and the Constitution, as long as you are an average Kenyan with good intellectual capacity like myself, then you are able to interpret and understand that there is nothing infringing on it. As a matter of fact, Article 38 of the Constitution provides for the rights of Kenyan to form themselves into political parties and movements. I do not think Hon. Murugara has raised a substantive issue regarding this Bill on that matter. On the issue of public participation, we do not have clear programmes and provisions in law which define how public participation needs to be carried out. Yesterday, we deferred debate of the Second Reading of this Bill because we realised that we were going to infringe on that provision in the Constitution on public participation. We had invited Kenyans and gave them 21 days which were ending last evening. One would expect that any Kenyan who is interested in giving input in whichever form would have used the 21 days, either to send a written memorandum or appear before the Committee of the House, and canvass his or her position. At the end of the 21 days’ period, you cannot again come and fault this House that we have not conducted enough 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."
}