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"content": "Thank you, Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir. I stand to support this very important Bill. I think since the repeal of Section 2A, this country has been struggling about how we should actualise multi-partyism. We have it in the books but in practical circumstances, we do not have it because we do not have a legal framework for the organisation, funding, roles and functions of political parties. Today, we have more than 80 parties. Some exist in name only and some are owned by more than one person. Some are also just there to be sold to politicians when it comes to election time. Therefore, it is a good thing that we are now bringing together a legal framework which gives us explicit management rules on how we manage, provide for arbitration and which will fund political parties. It is very important to fund political parties no matter how small the percentage. It has been shown globally that when you do not fund political parties, politicians and political parties will seek campaign financing through corruption. Many of the scandals that we have heard from the loan that was given to Sololo Outlets, many of the white elephant projects, allocation of land and Goldenberg, have had, in the end, to do with something to do with campaign financing. We are saying that if we are trying to fight corruption, this law is going to be a step forward in our fight against corruption. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, we will not be the first country or democracy to put together a political parties law. It has been done in South Africa, India and even in Tanzania. The difference is that the provisions in their political parties' legislation have always been anchored in April 26, 2007 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 991 the Constitution. Although this Bill has come ahead of the minimum reforms discussions, I hope and appeal to hon. Members to ensure that we anchor the provisions of this Bill into the Constitution so that we can be able to effect what we pass here. I have looked at the Bill itself and it is divided into five parts. As an hon. Member sitting in the Departmental Committee on Administration of Justice and Legal Affairs, the Committee has tabled some of the proposals through which we would like to strengthen this particular Bill. There has been the issue of the autonomy of the Office of the Registrar. Indeed, the Electoral Commission of Kenya (ECK) petitioned the sub-committee working on the amendments. We have proposed that the Office of the Registrar should be autonomous. We have also tried to see whether the functions of the Registrar can go beyond just registering political parties and go into dealing and arbitration disputes. Currently, we are having a problem because we have disputes as political parties, whether they are intra-party or inter-party disputes. We go to courts but there is no specific court dealing with political parties' issues and it can take years. Since we have known what happens when we have disagreements on things like Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), I think it will be important for parties that come together to form coalitions to deposit instruments of coalitions such as Memoranda of Understanding (MOUs) with the Registrar of Political Parties so that when disagreements arise, then there is somebody who can arbitrate and clearly state what was agreed on. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, it is also important to note that although the Bill states that decisions of the Registrar should be appealed against at the High Court, this will not help us very much because political parties would like to end disputes as far as possible. Therefore, there should be a proposal to introduce a political parties tribunal which will deal with disputes within a period of three months. Of course, you can still appeal to the High Court, but, at least, we should have another body which, hopefully, Parliament will appoint so that we can be certain that the decisions taken by that tribunal are decisions that will favour us equally no matter which side of the House one sits. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, the Bill is very silent on the issue of coalitions. The reality in Kenya today is that we have coalitions and we will continue being in coalitions. Not many countries legislate on coalitions, but I think Kenya is an exceptional country. Problems relating to management of coalitions are exceptional and we really need to mention it in this Bill. The funding of political parties need to be looked at carefully in Part IV of this Bill, including the kind of money that we want to distribute to smaller parties that are not represented in Parliament. One of the intentions of this Bill is to ensure that we get rid of briefcase political parties and those that do not have an ideology or a following. Therefore, the funding needs to be distributed in the same way. If I may share with hon. Members, in the amendments proposed by the relevant Departmental Committee, we have also proposed a small percentage of the fund to go into administration, the same way we have provided for an administrative cost for the Constituencies Development Fund (CDF) so that the larger parties which are participating in elections will get 80 per cent of the Fund. We have also proposed that 5 per cent will go towards meeting administrative costs and 15 per cent will be distributed equally to all persons. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, when we were at Bomas of Kenya, we spoke about issues of equity and affirmative action. We also talked about the need to ensure that this Fund supports the participation of both genders in political parties. It is no secret that women aspirants have been locked out for a long time from participating in politics because, somehow, they have not been able to get into the leadership of political parties. I think it will be a good gesture if this House, through this Bill, could indicate that the Fund will only be available where you have, at least, one-third of each gender as the leadership of a political party. That way, both male and female taxpayers will benefit from the money that they contribute to political parties. 992 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES April 26, 2007 Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I do not have much to say other than that I support this Bill. We all know that we need money this year. Each political party needs a campaign kitty and each political party needs to reach out to Kenyans. With those few remarks, I beg to support."
}