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{
    "id": 1523471,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1523471/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 417,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Suba South, ODM",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Caroli Omondi",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "the nomination roll and then come to this House and be the minority leader. There is no way the leader of the official opposition can exist in our constitutional order. So, again, we were taking people for a ride. I am happy that it is out. On Political Parties Bill, I am very happy that this Report recommends that political parties cannot take away your election as they have tried in the past with some of us. In Kenya, Members are elected directly by the people, not by parties. Parties are not elected in elections in Kenya. Once you are elected, even if you disagree with your party, it cannot remove you from this House. That is the law. Let me put it very clearly. What we need to do is to create “a cross-bench” in this House. Today, if you go to the House of Commons, the former leader of the Labour Party – the one who ran for elections and lost – is no longer in the Labour Party. He ran as an independent candidate. There should be a cross-bench out there for those who have disagreed with their parties on issues and do not wish to caucus with them. There should be a cross-bench where they will be free to sit. That is a practise in the Commonwealth. A political party cannot overturn the will of the people after you have been elected. That is the law. They should have gone further to review Section 7(2)(a) and Section 7(2)(3) of the Political Parties Act, where dominant political parties are putting barriers for the establishment of parties that can compete with them. We will discuss the Political Parties Amendment Bill which is in the NADCO Report, but with illegalities. There is no requirement that my party should have 1,000 members in 25 sub-counties or if I have a party, I should be registered in those sub-counties. For example, if I want to form an Omena party for Omena fishermen, I should be allowed. A political party should be registered in not more than 72 hours. That is a practise in the Commonwealth. What we see are games where dominant political parties are trying to create entry barriers to new competition in the political space. This is an illegality and there are many others. I read the NADCO Report… I can see that my time is running out and I may not exhaust everything. I am very happy that this Report will meet the same fate as BBI. This is because there are a lot of illegalities. Thank you, Hon. Temporary Speaker."
}