Entry Instance

HTTP 200 OK
Allow: GET, PUT, PATCH, DELETE, HEAD, OPTIONS
Content-Type: application/json
Vary: Accept

{
    "id": 1384912,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1384912/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 878,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Funyula, ODM",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. (Dr) Ojiambo Oundo",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": " Hon. Temporary Speaker, it is always refreshing for Members to propose amendments to Acts, Bills or the Constitution. Because of time, I will be very brief. Amendments proposed under Article 88 of the Constitution are an interesting reading. They are a study on how we can manipulate a system to get to a certain desired goal. We find ourselves in an extraordinary situation where we do not have a functional Commission, not because there is any lacuna in the law on how to recruit and replace retiring commissioners, but because the politics of the day have made it practically impossible to have a new Commission. Since we have omnipresent presidents or leadership, we take ambiguous positions and hound out those we disagree with, who are the referees, because they have made a call that we disagree with. We are trying to legislate for posterity on a matter that has nothing to do with the future. Who thinks that we will always have such a scenario? Article 250 of the Constitution is explicitly clear on what constitutes a commission. The IEBC is a constitutional commission. A constitutional commission is not a commission without the commissioners and the secretariat. It would have, therefore, been consequential for this amendment to stand. It amends Article 250 to allow circumstances where a secretary can assume the role of the commissioner. As the substantive Speaker said, you cannot amend a constitutional proposal or a Bill; it either passes or falls as it is. Unfortunately, this has to face the fate as it is. It cannot stand because an election is an election. There is no contemplation in the law or the Constitution on the difference between a by-election and a main election. Elections must be undertaken by a commission composed of the commissioners and the secretary. As much as I want to sympathise with the people of Banissa because Hon. Kulow was my personal friend, unfortunately, the law is the law. There is nothing we can do. Let us practise clean politics and avoid being vindictive or hound people out because we disagree with them."
}