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{
    "id": 1157870,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1157870/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 250,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Tharaka, DP",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. George Gitonga",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13491,
        "legal_name": "George Gitonga Murugara",
        "slug": "george-gitonga-murugara"
    },
    "content": " Thank you very much, Hon. Speaker. I rise to support the Bill proposing various amendments to the Elections Act. As a member of the Departmental Committee on Justice and Legal Affairs, I confirm that we sat and went through this Bill. We confirmed that in spite of the fact that the election cycle has already kicked off, there are pertinent provisions in this Bill that we can apply in the coming election. We have made a provision that the commencement date of the amended law will be the date of gazettement. The reason I say so is because there is clamour in the country that elections have to be free and fair. Everybody is crying over this. Let us have credible elections where a loser is going to concede, and the winner is going to be applauded. We do not wish to have tugs of war whether on the streets or in the courts regarding elections, especially where it is contended that those elections are flawed. The amendments are proposed principally by the IEBC. The main purpose is to ensure that decisions of the court which have been coming out from time to time with regard to how we have conducted elections in the past are adhered to and anchored in statute law. This is one reason why I say these are good proposals. We should move and amend the laws as proposed. The Departmental Committee on Justice and Legal Affairs has also come up with proposals to make further amendments, and I am in total concurrence with those proposals because they are justified. There is justification to propose that we can make the proposed amendments in the Bill better so that Kenyans have the assurance that we have a good election law in place. Kenyans should be assured that the elections we are just about to conduct will be credible, fair, just and justifiable. Let me make a few comments on the further proposed amendments by the Committee. The first one is that we are proposing that any Kenyan who goes to a polling station will be at liberty to vote using either an ID card or a passport. The law says a passport but having considered the word ‘passport’ alone, we know there are many Kenyans with expired passports. An expired passport is not a passport in law, and it cannot be used anywhere. Even banks would not accept it. This is why we have proposed that one will have to use a valid passport; one that is current, acceptable in law and can be used for all purposes, such as banking and voting."
}