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{
    "id": 1203277,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1203277/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 194,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Suna East, ODM",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Junet Mohamed",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": " Thank you, Hon. Speaker. From the onset, I first congratulate you for being elected as Speaker. Secondly as a country, we are governed by the Constitution and the rule of law. Hon. Speaker, you and the Members know very well that, as a country, we have decided to legally manage our politics. We amended the Political Parties Act and, as alluded to by Hon. Ichung’wah, as acrimonious as it was, the law was passed. The law was assented to and some of its architects might be in this House with us, but that is a story for another day. The law was passed, assented to and taken to the Constitutional Court by a private citizen. The Court affirmed that the law was enacted constitutionally. Numbers were raised in the House and voting was done. The issue I want to raise is that in governing our politics, we decided to have pre-election and post-election coalitions. We are discussing Members of parties that made a pre-election coalition agreement. That agreement was registered with the Registrar of Political Parties. When I finish my presentation, I would like to table that Coalition Agreement. I have it here with me. All those parties appended their signatures in broad daylight, in a ceremony that was held at the Kenyatta International Convention Centre (KICC). Those who are saying that it was at night were probably campaigning somewhere. But the ceremony started at 9.00 a.m. in the morning and ended at 3.00 p.m. We went to a rally in Jacaranda Estate after that until 6.00 p.m. All these parties like WDM-K, the Kenya African National Union (KANU), the National Rainbow Coalition – Kenya (NARC-Kenya), the Muungano Party, the Maendeleo Chap Chap Party with their Secretary, Mr. Wilfred Nyamu, the Democratic Action Party, and the Devolution Party of Kenya appended their signatures. I want to table this Agreement. Hon. Ochieng’s Party, the Movement for Democracy and Growth (MDG) Party signed the Agreement. I know why he signed it, but that is a story for another day. Hon. Speaker, we must respect our laws. You were a party leader before the elections. You decided on your own volition that your party wanted a pre-election coalition agreement with another coalition. Those parties should have followed suit. You cannot break a marriage just to pick up from where Hon. Osoro left. You cannot marry another person before you divorce the first one. If you want a divorce, there is a procedure to be followed. You must divorce procedurally. This Pre-Election Coalition Agreement is in force and is registered. This country has left behind the era when coalition agreements would be rubbished. That is why the Political Parties Act put in place provisions to ensure that coalition agreements are upheld by those who signed them. You remember the Memoranda of Understanding that were signed in 2002, and those that were signed when the new Constitution was promulgated. This Parliament, in its own wisdom, passed the Political Parties Act which stated that parties have to redeposit the agreement with the Registrar of Political Parties. If a party wants to exit a coalition agreement, there are exit clauses that they have to follow, and which allow them to do so. More importantly, parties that claim to have left this Coalition have written to me, as the Secretary-General of the Azimio la Umoja One Kenya Alliance Party with petitions stating that they are going to the Constitutional Court to get an order to get out of the Coalition. That is the right route. If they knew they could walk in and 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."
}