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{
    "id": 1569505,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1569505/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 460,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Tharaka, UDA",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. George Murugara",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": " Thank you very much, Hon. Temporary Speaker. Allow me to second the Political Parties (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill (Senate Bill No. 26 of 2024), from the Senate. It has been ably moved by the Deputy Leader of the Majority Party, and from his speech, Members have learnt what this Bill is all about. For those who may not have fully captured the speech, please note that we have the Report of the Departmental Committee on Justice and Legal Affairs, which was tabled in this House last week during the consideration of the Bill. We went clause by clause giving justification of each clause, and its compliance with the Constitution as required. The Report is elaborate. I urge Members to obtain copies and especially look at public participation under Article 118 of the Constitution where members of the public, stakeholders and interest groups came before us and made their representations, which were put into consideration in this Bill. We may not have agreed with some of the proposals that were being made, but it is important to point out that we agreed with some of the proposals that require amendment of certain clauses in the Bill. We have made proposals on this in our Report. It is a schedule of amendments that is annexed to the Bill so that we can harmonise the proposals in the Bill, with what came out from the public during public participation. We must emphasise the importance of public participation. This is where everybody who has an interest comes to voice that interest to the betterment of the laws that are being enacted for the benefit of the country. We have a schedule that will appear when we go to the Committee of the Whole House, with those proposals and the justifications. We will move that this House either adopts or rejects, depending on how the House will take the proposals. Very quickly, I will go through the proposed Bill so that everybody, including Kenyans, know what we are doing here this late afternoon or towards this evening. First and foremost, it is important to note that we are undertaking a fundamental step, which is to replace the Office of the Registrar of Political Parties (ORPP) with a commission. This commission will be known as the Independent Political Parties Regulatory Commission. It is a statutory commission and not a constitutional commission. That means its independence is derived from a statute. Therefore, if any of its Act contradicts the Constitution, those Acts are likely to be declared unconstitutional because it is not a constitutional commission. It is established under the Political Parties Act which we are now amending. The first several clauses of the Bill proposed are purely to align the office to the commission such that where the ORPP appears, we replace that with the commission. We have also defined the word commission so that anybody who does not know which commission we are talking about here can know that it is the Independent Political Parties Regulatory Commission which we are establishing under the new section 33 that is being introduced in the Act. The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor."
}