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"content": "great fault in any provisions seeking to limit the political rights of Members of this House. Our Constitution is very Rights-centric. In any ruling I make as your Speaker, I must be guided by the provisions of Article 3; Article 10 and Article 21 of the Constitution. These provisions require me to uphold, respect and defend the Constitution whenever applying myself on any questions brought before me. I am also under an obligation to jealously protect the rights and freedoms guaranteed by the Constitution to all Members of this House and indeed all Kenyans. You will note that even when making laws, all of you are enjoined under Article 24 of the Constitution to ensure that any limits you place on a right or freedom are expressly stated and that the limitation is reasonable and justifiable in an open and democratic society. Having looked at the drafting style of the Political Parties Act, vis-à-vis the requirements of Article 24(2) of the Constitution, it is evident that the Political Parties Act does not manifest or declare any intent whatsoever to limit the rights guaranteed under Article 36 of the Constitution on the freedom of association and Article 38 of the Constitution on political rights. Political rights are not absolute. They may be limited in a manner that is consistent with the provisions of Article 24 of the Constitution. Indeed, the Political Parties Act does not engage in the substantive limitation of rights but only deals with the procedural exercise of those rights in terms of timelines. Indeed, the architecture of the Act is that timelines are only prescribed with respect to activities that fall before the election date which seem to be related to the management of the election calendar. There are no timelines prescribed for activities after the election date. From the provisions of the Act, it appears that a person is at liberty to join and leave political parties as long as they notify the Registrar of their actions. I am not sure whether a provision of a coalition agreement regulating the period within which a Member may exit a coalition would pass the test of being compliant with the Political Parties Act, in the first instance, or the Constitution, in the second instance. Fortunately, that is not for me to decide. I trust those who are aggrieved will find their way to courts of law in exercise of their powers under Article 165 of the Constitution. Noting that some of the matters raised were said to be pending either in the Political Parties Dispute Tribunal or the court, I shall refrain from pronouncing myself on such. Hon. Members, let me now turn to the nexus between the letter from the Registrar of Political Parties and the several gazette notices published by the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) with respect to your election or nomination as Members of this House. Based on Gazette Notices No. 9950 and 9951 of 2022 both dated 23rd August 2022; Gazette Notice No. 10535 of 2022 dated 5th September 2022; Gazette Notice No. 10537 of 2022 dated 7th September 2022 and Gazette Notice No. 10710 of 2022 dated 9th September 2022 the current composition of the National Assembly by individual political parties is as follows: The UDA), 145; ODM, 86; Jubilee Party, 28; WDM, 26; UDM, 8; ANC, 8; FORD- K, 6; KANU, 6; DAP-K, 5; PAA, 3; KUP, 3; UPIA 2; MCCP, 2; TSP, 2; UPA, 1; NAP-K, 1; NOPEU, 1; GDDP, 1; DP, 1; MDG)1; and CCM, 1. Hon. Members, reference to the letter by the Registrar of Political Parties would give the cumulative number of members of the constituent parties of what the Registrar refers to as the Azimio la Umoja-One Kenya Coalition Party as 171 Members against 165 Members of the constituent parties of what the Registrar refers to as the Kenya Kwanza Alliance. It is however, notable that a total of 14 Members are drawn from four parties which is UDM, MDG, MCCP and PAA who according to the letter of the Registrar have filed constitutional petitions and objections against their membership in Azimio. This implies that the letter from the Registrar may not be used to compute the membership of the Majority and Minority parties by dint of the admission contained in it on the existing constitutional petitions and objections. Hon. Members, it will also be recalled that the Members of UDM, MDG, MCCP and PAA have claimed they signed pre-election and post-election coalition agreements with the Kenya Kwanza Alliance Coalition. Cumulatively, the membership of the four parties in this 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."
}