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{
    "id": 1593214,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1593214/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 682,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Suba South, ODM",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Caroli Omondi",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": " Thank you, Hon. Temporary Speaker. My friend, Hon. Toroitich, and I have really waited for this opportunity to get to this Order. This is another Bill from the Senate. I rise to express my reservations about certain provisions on it, and also acknowledge the very heavy challenges it presents to our democracy. Moreso, it is insensitive to public interest. It elevates the interest of the political class above all other members of society. Its objectives are also short-term. Let me go straight to the point. In our constitutional system, it is individuals who go for elections and get elected. There are two pathways through which individuals may access political office. An individual can choose to run for office as an independent candidate as the Member for Migori or Hon. Toroitich there. The other pathway is to join a political party and be elected as a member of a political party. Political parties are not elected in Kenya. None of these pathways is superior or inferior to the other. They are all equal; whether you are elected as an individual or as an individual within a political party. Unfortunately, this Bill entrenches the selective funding of only political parties to the exclusion of independent candidates. This is discriminatory and violates the principles of free, fair and credible elections. This is because it gives undue advantage to those who choose one pathway and tilts the level playing field, rendering fair competition impossible in such an environment."
}