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{
"id": 1494751,
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"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Sen. Osotsi",
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"id": 13588,
"legal_name": "Osotsi Godfrey Otieno",
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"content": "electoral agency is performing its role and doing its work transparently, in an accountable manner, there should not be any burden on candidates to have agents in polling station. That should be the role of the Electoral Commission. The idea of having agents in polling station to verify the results is a clear confirmation that our electoral system has something wrong, and that clearly puts a lot of pressure on the candidates. You can imagine, if you are a presidential candidate in this country with about 45,000 polling stations, putting two people in each polling station. That is translates to 90,000 people manning your results, and you are paying each Kshs5,000 shillings. This means, even before you put your name on the ballot, you should have a budget of half a billion shillings, just to manage agents. That is ridiculous and undemocratic. We need to reform our IEBC, such that, there is no pressure for candidates to have agents in the polling station, because the whole process is transparent, has clarity, and is protected by a functional Commission. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, I am also concerned about the amendment in Section 39(6), the one that Sen. Cherarkey was referring to. It states- “The Chairperson of the Commission shall declare the results of the election of the President in accordance with Article 138(10) of the Constitution.” Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, this is where we have a problem. This is one of the areas that I will be seeking amendments on. The ‘Cherera Four’ were complaining that they were not involved in the final verification and review of the results before they were declared. This provision must be enhanced further to say that the Commissioners will be involved fully before the Chairperson of the Commission declares the results, so that we do not have a scenario where some commissioners walk out and say that they were not involved in the final tallying and verification of the results. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, Clause 23, which seeks to amend Section 44 of the Principal Act that talks about matters of procurement of technology, in this case, Information Technology (IT) and the issue of intellectual property rights to the technology will be vested in the Commission. This is very important because during the election, the IEBC cited in court that they could not allow access to its technology because it is an intellectual property of the technology provider. That can be an avenue to deny access to very important information by Kenyans who would wish to access that information. This amendment is very progressive. Further to it, the supplier or the associate of this supplier, must not be people who are facing issues in their own jurisdiction. For instance, they are guilty of violating the procurement laws or committed a crime or have been involved in election malpractices in other countries. This Section 44 that has been amended provides for that as well. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, Clause 25 seeks to delete Section 45 of the Principle Act. This Section of the Principle Act, talks about the conditions for recall by the Republic, of Members of Parliament (MPs). The current Act makes it so difficult to recall an MP. This was deliberately put there by MPs, trying to safeguard and beat around the corners on the issue of recall. This Section has now been removed. It is going to be very easy to recall an MP including myself, if I am not performing. The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposes only.A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Director, Hansard and Audio Services,Senate."
}