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"id": 224071,
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"speaker_name": "Ms. Karua",
"speaker_title": "The Minister for Justice and Constitutional Affairs",
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"legal_name": "Martha Wangari Karua",
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"content": " Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, may I begin by thanking all those who have contributed, either in support or in opposition to the Bill. They have all enriched the Bill. For those who have contributed in support and urged for amendments, I want to state that we will be flexible to listen to the issues raised and find the best way of strengthening this piece of legislation. This is a step towards getting orderly political parties and of nurturing democracy. We cannot achieve all the steps in one day. It is a beginning! Once the Bill is on the Floor of the House, it belongs to the hon. Members. It is up to them to strengthen it by adding or deleting. This will be subject to the discussions that will go on. I have seen the proposed amendments by the Departmental Committee on Administration of Justice and Legal Affairs. I have no quarrel with most of them but I have issues that I will, along with hon. Members when they are raising their issues, indicate opposition to and the reasons. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, quite a number of hon. Members have wondered about the criteria of eligibility of parties. That is covered in both Section V and VI. It is quite clear that a party will not merit full registration before meeting the criteria. No party, also, will enjoy funding before this Bill receives full legislation. It is, obvious, where we have reached this year, that the funding is unlikely to apply this current year. If this Bill successfully goes through, it would mean that by the time the parties finish the 180 days or six months, by which time they have to comply with the new requirements of the Act, it will be past the Election time. It is necessary that parties have enough time because otherwise, it will throw all of us into a confusion in an election year. However, passing the Bill is a step in the necessary direction so that parties start preparing themselves for the next phase. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, one of the requirements that will ensure that we do not have parties that are restricted to one region is that a party must have, at least, 200 members from each of our eight provinces. The party must also have a founding member in all the districts of this country. We cannot spell out in minute details who should be a member of a political party, but in a small way, a skeleton of what a party should look like can be provided. It means that parties are being given a direction that if you are a serious political party meriting full registration, you will have to spread your wings to the entire country. Should members feel, like it has been suggested here, that the requirement be that you have a member in each of the 210 constituencies, it is up to you to consider whether that is reasonable. For example, is it reasonable that in six months, a nascent party will have gone round all the 210 constituencies? These are proposals that are before the House and they are subject to discussion by members of a political party. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, the political registration of a party that appears to have the required criteria is within one month and the period for the party to satisfy the criteria for full registration is six months. All the time limits have been spelt out and where the hon. Members feel that a time limit is needed, we are open to proposals. 1012 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES April 26, 2007 There was a point raised about Clause 16(6) which states that: \"A fully registered political party loses its status as a political party and as a body corporate if it has not participated in a parliamentary election or local government election with electoral proposals of its own for a period of six years.\" The words \"electoral proposals\" here refer to the party policies, otherwise known as the party manifesto. Therefore, a party should not only have candidates, but also a manifesto. We could change the language in this Bill so that it becomes quiet clear that we are talking about a party manifesto. We need to ensure that we have political parties which have a clearly defined ideology."
}