Entry Instance

HTTP 200 OK
Allow: GET, PUT, PATCH, DELETE, HEAD, OPTIONS
Content-Type: application/json
Vary: Accept

{
    "id": 224578,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/224578/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 189,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Mr. Muite",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 235,
        "legal_name": "Paul Kibugi Muite",
        "slug": "paul-muite"
    },
    "content": "For a long time, we treated parties as if they are societies. Political parties are registered. If you go and form a society for selling fish or eggs, your society and a political party are regulated and governed by the same Societies Act. It is a shame that for so many years, we have not recognised that political parties are in effect, by nature and essence, not societies. They are political parties! They have always needed a separate statute to regulate and to govern them, away from the other societies. We are also correcting a major imbalance of allowing the Executive to be the one to decide which political party to register or not; who has won an election when a party has disputed elections and who has not won. There are many historical injustices that we shall be correcting by enacting this Bill. One of the most pathetic cases is told by Ngugi wa Thiong'o in one of his books. In those days before 1982; before Kenya became a de jure one party state, there was a humble individual from Githunguri who woke up one morning and decided: Since this Constitution allows multi-partyism--- Those were the days of Jomo Kenyatta, the first President. This humble man from Githunguri who was found in Block E in Kamiti Prison by Ngugi wa Thiong'o decided to go and register a political party. When he presented his papers, he was taken up to a Mr. David Coward, who was the Registrar- General then. He was welcomed, given a cup of tea and told to come back in three days' time to collect his certificate of registration. He went back to Githunguri a happy man. On the third day when he arrived in the Office of the Registrar-General thinking that he was going to get another cup of tea, he took his seat and within a few minutes, the one and only Charles Njonjo walked in with askaris and then looked at him. The man was arrested and driven to Kamiti Maximum Prison where he was served a detention order for seeking to register a political party. When Prof. Ngugi wa Thiong'o found him there, he had stayed there for over five years. Prof. Ngugi wa Thiong'o asked him, \"What are you doing here?\" And so he told Prof. Ngugi wa Thiong'o the whole story. He told him that he did not know why he was being detained. He told him, \"I went there to register a political party and this is what happened to me. That is why I am here.\" Let us enact this Bill so as to ensure that such a thing will never happen again. The power to register a political party must be taken away from the Executive and vested into an autonomous Electoral Commission. That is why I am saying that this Bill needs to be contextualised in the wider constitutional order. We must amend the Constitution to give meaningful autonomy to the Electoral Commission so that they can administer this Political Parties Fund and so that they can oversee the Registrar of Political Parties, which is going to be a very important position. I want to appeal to hon. Members to support this Bill. Let us have all their views, and I know that we shall accommodate as many of them as possible during the Committee Stage. I also want to appeal to the Minister to reciprocate. Let us do what is best for this country. This is not about who is winning. This calls for a non-partisan, by-partisan approach. It is for the 950 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES April 25, 2007 good of this House and the country at large. It is for the good of everybody. So, let the Minister also accommodate the amendments and views that hon. Members are putting forward. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, with those remarks, I beg to support."
}