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"speaker_name": "Prof. Olweny",
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"content": "Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, this country has a very interesting history of party politics. At Independence, we were enjoying multi-partyism, until KADU decided to disband itself and join KANU. That was their own decision at that time. In 1969, KPU, which was formed in 1966 was banned. That took us into the bad days of single party politics in this country. There are days that are not very interesting to remember, when Kenya had a single party system. This is particularly in the late 1970s and 1980s, when the Lords of KANU would wake up and decide to kick an individual out of the party. That would be the end of many things for an individual who was kicked out of KANU. If one was kicked out of KANU, he was denied many other things in this country. He would even lose his job. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, this Bill is intended to help Kenyans to streamline party politics and have their rights in party politics. It is very unfortunate that even today, when we have multi-partyism, the Government still interferes with party politics. Recently, we had problems with the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM). We also had problems with KANU splitting and one group registering itself with the Registrar of Societies and another group also coming in. It looks like a few people in the Government are trying to interfere with parties in this country. The party politics that we have had in this country have been characterised by defections and counter-defections. Of course, the early defections had a lot of Government hand in them, particularly in the early 1990s, when the Forum for the Restoration of Democracy (FORD), was formed, which later split into FORD(K) and FORD(A), and further into FORD(P) and all the other FORDs that we have in this country. Then a few other parties were formed. There were defections and counter-defections from one party to another, particularly from the Opposition parties to KANU. That was all Government interference, particularly for those who defected from Opposition parties to KANU. Even today, a number of hon. Members have moved from the Opposition to the so-called Government of National Unity. We are still seeing the hand of the Government in disorganising parties and trying to control parties other than the ruling party. I hope that when this Bill becomes law, it will bring sanity to the politics of this country. The Bill may not help if the Registrar of Political Parties has autonomous authority within the Electoral Commission of Kenya (ECK), which is also supposed to be autonomous. That must be addressed before this House passes this Bill. Otherwise, we will still have the same problems that we have had with parties, which have caused a lot of political chaos in this country. There are a few clauses in this Bill, some of which my colleagues have talked about that I need to revisit. In Clause 3, we should give the ECK the powers to appoint the Registrar of Political Parties rather than having an individual sitting within the ECK having autonomous power, while the Chairman of the ECK also has his powers. Let us give the Chairman of the ECK the powers to appoint and give duties to the Registrar of Political Parties. That way, we shall have sanity in our political parties. Things will be more organised with the Electoral Commission of Kenya (ECK) as regards the registration of political parties, and having a structure for running of political parties in this country. 944 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES April 25, 2007 Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, what is suggested under Clause 6 looks to me like we are in those days when the Government would wake up one morning and ban any political party it thought was not being run well. It reminds me of 1969, when the Kenya Peoples Union (KPU) was banned. What we have in Clause 6 provides for such a possibility, because if the Registrar of Political Parties, or the ECK, is pro-Government, he can mess around. He can deregister so many parties if he feels that the people running those parties are anti-Government."
}