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"id": 224563,
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"speaker_name": "Mr. Kembi-Gitura",
"speaker_title": "The Assistant Minister for Foreign Affairs",
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"legal_name": "James Kembi Gitura",
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"content": " Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, indeed Clause 3 of the Bill says that the office created shall be an office within the Commission, and it shall have operational autonomy. I have had an occasion to look at the proposed amendments by the relevant Committee of the House, and also the letter that has been circulated to hon. Members by the Chairman of the ECK, which raises several important issues. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I am happy to see that the Committee on Justice and Legal Affairs has proposed to remove the words \"operational autonomy\" from the Bill. This is because it is not feasible that we have an officer with autonomy within an organization that is autonomous. In short, if you have the Registrar of Societies as an officer within the ECK, but is autonomous himself, then it means that he is not answerable even to the Chairman of the ECK or even the ECK itself. That is going to create problems. Therefore, I am happy to see that the Committee has come up with that amendment. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I wish, also, to thank the Chairman of the ECK because, as the Chairman, I think it was incumbent upon him to bring it to the attention of the House, that there was that anomaly which was going to create problems within the Act itself. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, Clause 9 of the Bill, at the beginning says that a person who has attained the age of 18 years has a right to participate in political activities which are intended to influence the composition of policies of the Government. Now, I do not quite understand what the words \"influence the composition and policies of the Government\" mean. I do not know whether this means that a person who has attained the age of 18 years would have the right, for instance, to run for a Parliamentary seat. If this is the intention - by influencing the composition and policies of Government, there are many ways that one can do this - then it will be in contravention of Section 34 of the Constitution which says that for a person to run for a Parliamentary seat, one has to have attained the age of 21 years. That, in my opinion, again, needs to be harmonized, and/or made clear, so that we are sure that the words \"influence the composition and policies of the Government\" do not become words that need to be interpreted by a constitutional court or High Court. They should be easy to understand so that they are not in conflict or at cross-purpose with the provisions of the Constitution. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I quite agree with the provisions of Clause 9 which talks about party discipline, and particularly where one loses his or her seat if he joins or advocates for more than one political party. One of the biggest problems that we have had in this country over so many years, like I said in the beginning, is lack of party discipline. This becomes quite obvious as we come closer to the nominations for elections at the party level. You will find that a person is in party \"A\" and if he loses in the nominations, he moves to another party to seek nominations April 25, 2007 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 941 there. If he fails to be nominated there, he will go to a third party. I call that party indiscipline. Since a lot of these provisions are not within the laws of this country and in the party constitutions, at the end of the day, you will find there are people in this august House who do not in truth have allegiance to what can be called party politics but their only intention was to find their way to Parliament. I think it is high time that we started creating political party history like we have seen in other countries where if you say you are a member of the Conservative Party, for instance, it is a serious issue. For you to move to another party, it is not for a small reason, like losing party nomination. This has become quite clear as we have watched the nominations in the by-elections that are currently going on in the country where people are moving from one party to another. I hope that we are going to find time soon when we bring the so-called essential minimum reforms, if at all they will come or when we have a constitution of this country, like we had in the Bomas Draft and also in the Wako Draft, where you had to be a member of a party for, at least six months, before you could seek to be nominated under that party. That is one area that I see clearly is going to bring discipline into party politics in this country. This will also change the political landscape of our country. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, Clause 24 of the Bill states that one cannot contribute more than Kshs1 million to a political party within one calendar year. I have no problem with that provision. The only problem I see, and a previous speaker did mention it, is that every time Kshs1 million becomes not as much money as one would have thought it to be at the beginning, it would mean that you have to come back to Parliament to amend this Act. If you read Clause 24 carefully, you will find that although it says that one cannot give a sum exceeding Kshs1 million in one year, there is a proviso which says that: \"Provided that the Registrar may, on request, allow a person to contribute an amount exceeding Ksh1 million\". I think that is a major contradiction. If there is a mischief meant to be prevented by saying one cannot give more than Ksh1 million in one year, then there cannot be a reason again where the Registrar should have the discretion to allow an applicant to give a party more than Ksh1 million and have a discretion to refuse another applicant to give more than Ksh1 million to another political party. That is subject to political manipulation. It can be a very clear way, again, towards corruption on the part of this so-called \"independent Registrar of Political Parties\". Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I have noticed that the Departmental Committee on Administration of Justice and Legal Affairs has proposed that in place of Kshs1 million, we put a figure of Kshs5 million. The amount of money that we put in this clause does not matter. I would propose that we have an opening where this can be changed across the board and on a level playing ground to all the political parties so that the Registrar is not partial in any way. I would propose that, that clause should read that: \"It should be an amount not exceeding such term as the Registrar of Political Parties shall prescribe from time to time by way of gazettement\". So, we do not have to come back every time and because the Registrar shall be a person within the Electoral Commission of Kenya (ECK), I do not think that, that will be a very complicated thing to do. I think it is going to give a level playing ground for all the political parties so that, at least, nobody feels disadvantaged. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, some hon. Members have commented on the proposals that have been brought by the Departmental Committee on Administration of Justice and Legal Affairs. This committee proposes to do away with Clause 19. Clause 19 provides that: \"A political party may appeal to the High Court against the decision of the Registrar to cancel its registration. The decision of the High Court shall be final\". I think there will be a lot of danger if that clause is deleted. I think another party, in this 942 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES April 25, 2007 case the High Court, should have the final say on whether or not the decision to cancel a political party is right or wrong. The decision to cancel the registration of political parties has very, very far reaching implications because it means that the party would then have to be dissolved. It also means that a lot of people will be affected because it will not affect just the officials but also the people who call themselves members of that political party. It is very important that, that watchdog position of the High Court or another body other than the Registrar himself is there to see to it or to decide whether or not the decision to cancel or deregister a political party was right or wrong. The Registrar will become a very powerful person, if at his own behest and decision, he is able to deregister political parties with all the consequences that go with it. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, finally, there is the issue, again, of the cancellation of political parties which is contained in Clause 25. Clause 25 puts certain duties and obligations on the part of the political parties. It states that within a certain time after the elections, the political party has to do certain things which are mandatory under the provisions. Clause 25(4) says: \"Without prejudice to any other penalty provided in the Act or by any other written law, the Registrar shall cancel the registration of political paries which- (a) refuses or neglects to comply with this section; or (b) submits a statement which is false in any material particulars;\". The political party that is cancelled or deregistered, because those are semantics, may already have a Member of Parliament. A Member of Parliament may be elected on a political party. An hon. Member is sworn in on January of the relevant year, but the party does not submit the matters that it is supposed to submit as required under Clause 25. The question is: What happens to the hon. Member who has been elected under a party that has been deregistered? What are the consequences of deregistering that party to the particular Member? So, these are issues that are not as easy as they would appear on the face of it. It will have far reaching consequences. The hon. Member will cease to be a Member of Parliament. He will have to join another party, but those things are not provided for in this Bill and they could be in contravention of the provisions of the relevant section of the Constitution. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, there are many issues that we need to consider and that are important. This will most likely again come at the Committee Stage when we consider the amendments that have been proposed. However, all in all, I would say that the essence and intentions of the Bill, the Memorandum of Objects and Reasons that have been given show that we are now better positioned where we wish, as a nation, to bring back or to have discipline within our parties where we are going to eradicate even corruption and be able to guide the way that parties should be governed and which parties should benefit from the Government funding so that we have equal or fair playing grounds. With those few remarks, I beg to support."
}