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{
    "id": 1384895,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1384895/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 861,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Nyeri Town, UDA",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Duncan Mathenge",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "the exercise of their sovereignty, based on a technicality over who has the power of the pen to Gazette returning officer. The drafters of the Constitution had the uniqueness of looking at population as a key factor in the delineation of representation. Currently, the face of cohesion in the country is very well demonstrated in the Constitution by creation of two constitutional commissions, the National Cohesion and Integration Commission (NCIC) and National Gender and Equality Commission (NGEC). Both of them look at equality and cohesion. Therefore, the question of preserving the resources that Kenyans enjoyed before the promulgation of the new Constitution is a key consideration. It is my opinion and I hope that this House upholds it, that no Kenyan should lose for another Kenyan to gain. We can guarantee the status quo post-2010 while allowing constituencies that are over the population quota to be granted their right to representation immediately. That will provide us with a win-win situation. The resignation of the IEBC commissioners has happened twice in their last two terms of office. Roselyne Akombe and two others resigned from the previous commission. The Cherera Four resigned from the commission whose term has ended. It means that this country had better come to terms with the reality that it is possible to have commissioners resign in the middle of an election. We must create a transition provision for those realities because it has been demonstrated that it can happen even in the middle of an election, throwing the country into a constitutional crisis. I urge this House to rise to this occasion and fulfil the aspirations of Kenyans who looking up to us. They are wondering why they have given us the powers and the mandate to legislate yet the country is having very many lacuna in the law. Why do we have a technicality in subsidiary legislation that is preventing people from enjoying a constitutional right? Therefore, this House will do a lot of justice to Kenyans if we can, as my colleagues ahead of me have spoken, fast-track the amendment to this Constitution. We do not have to fear the fact that previous attempts by the National Assembly to amend the Constitution have failed. The circumstances are not the same. Now, it is in the mind of every Kenyan that we have seen areas with challenges after 13 years of the new Constitution. There is a need to amend. I support and congratulate my two colleagues for this timely proposal. Thank you."
}