Entry Instance

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

{
    "id": 1406251,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1406251/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 177,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Suba North, ODM",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Millie Odhiambo-Mabona",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "I am saddened that even for the speakers who are speaking here, we do not prime the issue of the two-thirds gender rule. Even in the NADCO Report, we have not primed it. We are an embarrassment in the region. That even countries that are still struggling have better gender representation in their parliaments. I do not know what happened to us as Kenyans. We are always challenged by people that we have very intelligent and strong women, but when it comes to representation, other countries are doing way much better than us. Let us give an example of our neighbour Tanzania. Their President, Hon. Speaker, their Hon. Majority Leader are all women. The numbers in Parliament are more than one third for the women representation. However, in Kenya all we can pride ourselves is speaking better English as if that is the measure of intelligence. Let us learn Kiswahili and English but, our greatest measure of intelligence is when we include women since they are a very great part of this country. That is when we should be priding ourselves as a country that we have made progress. We cannot be making progress in speaking a lot of English. There is another issue of concern that I have not seen us address here. We were very excited when we were saying that we are now bringing technology to our electoral process. Is Kenya really ready for a technological process in elections? Is Africa ready for a technological process in elections? I have been privileged to go to some countries as an election observer- I will not mention those countries now. Hon. Temporary Speaker, there are countries in Africa that we sit and go through the electoral process and there is no violence. People vote nicely and at the end, the results are announced after five or six days. The observers using the old technologies will come and declare that the process was free and fair and there was no violence. What violence do you expect in a computer system? I do not know the computer terminology, but I wish I knew. I do not know what will be fighting with the other in the computer. Is it a virus? Maybe there is a virus fighting the other for us to know that the process was not free and fair. One of the things that I wish and I do not want to delve into because we are progressing as a country... I do not want to go deep into that issue. I would want us as a country, if we really and truly want to forge ahead, to look at whether we are ready for technology. One of the countries that I went to had excellent elections. Ghana is touted as one of the best countries in Africa. During my visit there, the electoral process was open. People voted outside classrooms, and the results were counted in the open without the use of any technology. My concern is that technology provides a non-violent way of rigging, which is okay because many people do not lose their lives. However, this means that we are losing our democracy."
}