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{
    "id": 1592479,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1592479/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 836,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. George Murugara (",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "Tharaka, UDA): Thank you very much, Hon. Temporary Speaker. I wish the two other speakers who contributed immensely to the Bill were here to hear some of the points in the reply. Hon. Peter Kaluma and Hon. Toroitich have just left. However, it will be in The Hansard, so they will be looking at that. The first point I wish to respond to is from Hon. Kimutai – the Fund. This Fund is constitutional, and it is called the Political Parties Fund. If you wish to introduce Independents, we have to look at the constitutional provisions so that we can see how we can anchor it in an Act of Parliament – the Political Parties Act. We also have to amend that Act to make it the Political Parties and Independents Act. Otherwise, that Fund will not find any anchor anywhere in the arguments that have been proposed. Number two, this is not a constitutional commission. It is a Statutory Commission. It is a Commission established by an Act of Parliament. Therefore, Article 250 of the Constitution does not apply. It is a relevant statute, which is going to be the guiding law. Thus, it can have a deviation, like a few other commissions which are statutory. However, for the constitutional commissions, some of which are independent commissions, we have to comply with the provisions of Article 250 to the letter, because that is the requirement. To Hon. Kaluma, who swore that he is a staunch member of the ODM, and that he lives by the tenets of that party, this Bill, although it came from the Senate, is a National Dialogue Committee (NADCO) Bill. It was a negotiated Bill between his principal, the leader of the ODM, and the leader of the UDA, the President of the Republic of Kenya. It was based on the fact that when the election dispute of 2022 arose, they were of the view that it is not just the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) that needed some reform. The Office of the Registrar of Political Parties also needed to be reformed. They felt that one person making decisions in that office was not sufficient. It had to be a little bit collegiate. A number of people sit to discuss and agree or disagree. This is why there is a provision that the number 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."
}