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{
    "id": 1211518,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1211518/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 228,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Baringo North, UDA",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Joseph Makilap",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": " Thank you, Hon. Temporary Speaker. From the outset, I want to say that the President had very good ideas by submitting this Memoranda. However, his advisers could not separate the beans from the maize. I want to start with the issue of the leader of opposition. Hon. Temporary Speaker, truthfully speaking, this is intended to cure the business of winner takes it all in an election, especially in a very closely contested election that almost goes 50/50 and that person that almost commands half of the country is left without participating in the democratic process of our country. I agree that this matter could become very difficult given that the current Constitution of this country envisages that Kenya shall have a presidential system of Government. I want to provide logical ideas so that Members of this House realise that this matter will not be achieved soon unless a few things are addressed. Hon. Temporary Speaker, under this system, you can have a president who has won the elections of a country, but lacks the numbers in Parliament. It will be a situation where one is a president, but a minority in Parliament. In that case, if you say that the second candidate becomes the leader of opposition and the winner in the election becomes a president… Honestly, let us get things right. I belong to Kenya Kwanza, but I must be truthful to this nation that in this last election, if the current President did not work hard to ensure that we had the numbers in this House, we would have been the minority and yet we won the elections. Does this mean that we have a leader of opposition in the House and we have a president who won elections? This is the complexity of a presidential system. Therefore, we either chose as a country to use this system or adopt the parliamentary system. For instance, if you want to cure this particular matter, then allow those persons running for President to also contest as Members of Parliament so that when they are elected, they can occupy the positions of Leader of Majority and Leader of Minority. Many Members in this House do not understand that the 2010 Constitution does not anticipate that a Member of Parliament is either opposition or government. We are supposed to provide an oversight on the Government. This is why when 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."
}