Entry Instance

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

{
    "id": 1494752,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1494752/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 469,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Osotsi",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13588,
        "legal_name": "Osotsi Godfrey Otieno",
        "slug": "osotsi-godfrey-otieno"
    },
    "content": "It goes on under Section 46, which has also been repealed, to deal with all the conditions of recall under Section 45 and 46. Clause 28, seeks to repeal Section 74 of the Act, to provide that disputes during nomination will be the mandate of political parties' tribunal and not IEBC. During the elections we have seen that on one hand, the tribunal is dealing with matters of dispute in political parties. On the other hand, IEBC is doing the same. That is not the work of IEBC. This amendment will ensure that only political parties' tribunal will handle disputes between a candidate and his party or between political parties and not IEBC. The IEBC role is misplaced and that amendment heals that. Clause 29 amends Section 75, to provide that the Election Petition will terminate at the High Court for county assemblies. We should not have a scenario where, the Election Petition for a Member of County Assembly (MCA), is taken all the way to the Supreme Court. This law now provides that the case will terminate at the High Court. The same applies to Section 85A, which is amended under Clause 32 to provide that the Petition for MPs, Senators and Governors will terminate at the Court of Appeal. This is to enable the Supreme Court to perform the role that the drafters of the Constitution envisage them to do on specific things and not dealing with the election matters. Clause 31 which also amends Section 82 of the Principle Act provides that - “access to information upon a request to IEBC shall be granted within three days for Presidential Election and seven days for other positions.” Since the Presidential Election has to be done within a limited time, three days is a long period of time. This should be reduced to one day considering the time constraint in Presidential Elections. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, Clause 32 seeks to amend Section 85(a) of the principle Act on the courts’ decision of petition for Members of Parliament and I had talked about that. Clause 33, amends Section 87 to provide for the setting up of an independent firm approved by Parliament to evaluate elections and a host of other things, including, reviewing the legal framework, the register of voters, the role of the media and the voter counting procedures. This has to be done within one year after elections. These are progressive amendments and they will cure many of the challenges we are going through. Elections are very important and I hope that this Bill will help us deal with the electoral challenges we have been having in this country. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, I will go back to the IEBC issue in order to address the courts. The courts have every right to receive and process cases but they should also listen to what is happening outside the courts. They should take judicial notice of what is happening outside the courts. This country will be in a crisis if there will be need to have the IEBC and yet, there is none. We will have a major constitutional crisis. I, therefore, call upon the courts to help us expedite the setting up of our selection committee so that we can appoint the due commissioners who can conduct by-elections and prepare for elections. We are just about two years and a few months to the next general elections and we do not have an IEBC in place. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, remember the Kriegler Report said that all preparations to elections must be completed at least two years before elections. We do not even have an IEBC, and yet, we have not even started. Therefore, this is a very serious 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."
}