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{
    "id": 1537669,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1537669/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 167,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. (Dr.) Khalwale",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 170,
        "legal_name": "Bonny Khalwale",
        "slug": "bonny-khalwale"
    },
    "content": "Secondly, the people from special groups, like People with Disabilities (PwDs). I do not know how they get nominated. We should allow PWDs to be the principal decision makers and subject the beneficiaries to a vote. Finally, on this particular point, the people who get through these special seats, the 47 women elected in the National Assembly, plus whatever number we shall add them, should be allowed to run for that election only once. A woman MP representing a county should not be allowed to be re-elected more than once. They should learn the ropes in the first five years. At the end of it, they go for competitive seats. Similarly, PwDs should serve for five years. After five years, they then should face a competitive election. The reason I am saying this is because the spirit of nomination was not to create an opportunity for people to get freebies. It was an opportunity which was meant in the letter and spirit of this Constitution, to allow “people with limited capacities to win an election, to learn how the gurus like Raila Odinga, Uhuru Kenyatta, Musalia Mudavadi and Boni Khalwale made it to their political positions. I say this because we are the guys who have won elections not once, twice, thrice or four times, but in my case, five times. We are the gurus, so that they learn from us how we do it and then they go and compete. They are not to keep on hanging outside this door wanting to come here one election after another that I want to benefit from nomination over and over again. The second point I want to speak to is that you have seen the wind behind the sails of wanting to see NADCO suddenly become strong at a time that the President and the former Prime Minister have created some camaraderie. I am hoping that this new-found interest in making sure that NADCO goes through is not for purposes of serving the Broad- Based Government. The Broad-Based Government, just like the Handshake Government, that yielded Building Bridges Initiative (BBI) will go the way that Government went. We cannot afford a situation where we want to amend the Constitution, so as either to massage the egos of the proponents of the Broad-Based Government or to reward the beneficiaries of the Broad-Based Government. Mr. Speaker, Sir, we are all men and women of this Republic and we hear both the normal talk and the talk in the grapevine. These days, the talk on social media, which is part of our lives--- I do not like what I am hearing. What I am starting to hear at those three levels is as if somebody wants to fix another person or a particular party and not the other one, or a particular region at the expense of another one and a community. If that is the spirit of the Broad-based Government, it would be wrong. We should never punish anybody. I hear repeatedly people speaking of Gachagua or “Riggy G”. The story of “Riggy G” is gone. “Riggy G” was given an opportunity in this House to face me, Sen. Omogeni and all of us and he chickened out. That is a story which is gone. Let all politicians, especially from Mt. Kenya region, enjoy equal opportunity in the broad-based Government. When we were constituting the new look committees, unknown to this House, I failed to discharge my role as a Chief Whip who, under our Standing Orders, is supposed to take the lead in reconstituting committees. As a man who joined the struggle at an early age of 22 years at the University of Nairobi (UON), I find it difficult to be part of an exercise that was meant to be exclusive rather than inclusive. 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."
}