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"speaker_name": "Mr. Muturi",
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"legal_name": "Justin Bedan Njoka Muturi",
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"content": "I am told he can! All that will be required for us to provide in the law is a record of that contribution or donation. The Registrar or any other person that keeps the records is notified that Capt. Nakitare has contributed that amount to that particular political party. But limiting members to only Kshs1 million may, in a sense, very well kill the institutions that we want to build and nurture. That coupled with the fact that, we have not quite made it clear as to the amount of money that will go to the Political Parties Fund, I think it could very well stifle the growth of political parties due to lack of sufficient funding through donations from supporters, sympathizers and well wishers. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, there is the requirement for the provision of 25 per cent going flat to all political parties and 75 per cent being divided among political parties on the basis of the strength of votes obtained in the last general election. That 75 per cent or such other figure this House will agree should not just be within Parliament. It is only fair that we should look at--- Some parties will not have hon. Members here. But they will have many councillors. Some parties will have one or two hon. Members, like the ones we have today. When we talk about the national vote, the formula must be clearly spelt out so that, that 75 per cent or whatever other figure or percentage we will set, is worked out not so much on the basis of how many votes the presidential or parliamentary candidate alone will get, it should, in my proposal, be the total votes obtained by that party at the civic, parliamentary and presidential elections, wherever the three of them apply. That way, we will not kill some parties which could very well grow into some very serious political players in the country. We should do that to nurture them. But, in my view, I think that the requirement of 75 per cent may be on the lower side. In my proposition, I think we need to raise the threshold, which is given to political parties on the basis of their strength in the manner proposed, to a little higher than the 75 per cent. I will not mind if we made it 85 per cent to 90 per cent, so that we could try to clean up the system. The symbols of political parties are very many. They are too many for a young democracy like Kenya. We could get the threshold to around 10 per cent based on registration and 90 per cent based on the votes obtained in the previous general elections. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I know that there are fears that, once you register a political party, if you say that the kitty will be, for instance, Kshs1 billion, like in the case of the Youth Enterprise Development Fund (YEDF)--- I hear there is a threat of creating a Women Enterprise Development Fund (WEDF) and, maybe, another one for men. If we will have a kitty of Kshs1 billion--- The Chairman of the Electoral Commission Kenya (ECK) has gazetted 70 parties. If each of them was to get 10 per cent, that would not be too big. Of course, we will be telling them: \"Unless you can also raise funds from other sources, if you do not qualify for anything more within two general elections, you pack off and go.\" If that law was in operation, many such parties would be at home. But the danger is: Knowing how industrious and ingenious Kenyans are, they will always be forming new parties. I do not know what other criteria we will use. Ten years may sound a long period but, for people who want to form briefcase parties, they will wait! In the meantime, they will be getting money from PPF. It is for that reason that I feel we need to raise the threshold of the national vote and reduce the amount that goes to the parties on the basis of mere registration. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I know there has been a lot of talk about engendering everything April 25, 2007 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 939 that we do in this country. I do not know whether I will be in breach of the House rules, but the Departmental Committee on the Administration of Justice and Legal Affairs tabled their Report here yesterday. The Report is available to all of us. Since I will not have an opportunity to contribute to this Bill again, I do not know whether I would be in order to comment on some provision in their report that says: \"No political party shall benefit from the Fund if its registered national office bearers do not reflect, at least, a third of either gender.\" I find this a very interesting proposition by the Committee. If people do not vie for positions--- The hon. Minister for Justice and Constitutional Affairs has always vied against men in very serious General Elections and defeated them. Now, we are being told by the Committee that if a political party does not have one-third of its national office bearers being, at least, a third of either gender--- I do not know who is going to bring people--- It is not everybody who is interested in politics. My wife, for example, would not want to be involved in politics. Are we saying that we should just pick any women and tell them--- In as much as we may not want to say it, we are just being polite to say: \"At least, one-third of either gender.\" What is proposed here is that the national office of every political party shall have one-third women. If they are not vying in that political party--- For instance, now there is a party called \"Omnibus\" and another one called \"Chama Cha Maskini.\" If no woman wants to associate with Chama Cha Maskini, where will it get one-third of women? There is another party which has a symbol of a broom and small hut. Another one has a symbol of an iron box. Now, if a sufficient number of women does not want to run for offices in those political parties, you will be denying those parties funding. I think we should be careful about the way we go about these things, so that certain things, really, belong to the Constitution and the others belong elsewhere. There are some that belong to policy. I am happy that I have been given an opportunity to comment on this report."
}