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"id": 224625,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/224625/?format=api",
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"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Dr. Kibunguchy",
"speaker_title": "The Assistant Minister for Health",
"speaker": {
"id": 294,
"legal_name": "Enoch Wamalwa Kibunguchy",
"slug": "enoch-kibunguchy"
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"content": " Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I would like to commend the Ministry of Justice and Constitutional Affairs for coming up with this Bill. I am very sure, having listened to hon. Members contribute, that very good amendments are going to come up, to make what is a good Bill even better. Allow me to start by saying, at the risk of repeating what my colleagues have said, that we must talk about this Registrar of Political Parties. I believe that there are only two ways we can deal with this post. One way is to come up with an office that is completely independent of the Executive and the Electoral Commission and call it \"Office of the Registrar of Political Parties\". The other way is by giving powers of registration of political parties to the Electoral Commission so that we do not have conflict within one body. This is something that we can very easily end up experiencing in this country. So, either we separate them completely or give the powers to register political parties and administer the Political Parties Fund to the Electoral Commission. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, the other thing that we need to give to the Office of the Registrar of Political Parties so that we can bring sanity to political parties is that, and it has to be mentioned specifically in this Bill, the Office of the Registrar of Political Parties should maintain the register of party members. If you go to the rural areas now, especially at this time when the spirit of electioneering is catching up, anywhere you will stop, you will find young men - and now, increasingly, young women - having more than two different cards for different parties. So, when they see my friend, Mr. Muturi, they flash out the KANU card or the ODM(K) card. When they see me, they flash out the NARC(K) card and when they see Mr. Angwenyi, they bring out the FORD(P) card. That kind of thing needs to be dealt with specifically in this Bill. In the end, when it comes to the time for nominations, for example, the just concluded Magarini Constituency nominations, we would like to have a situation whereby not just anybody will nominate candidates for political parties. Candidates for those parties should be nominated by known registered members of those parties. What is happening now is exactly what happened in the last General Election where nominations were being conducted by everybody. It is very easy, if that is the situation, for parties to gang up and say, for example, that we shall remove Mr. Muturi because he is very popular and so that we can meet a weaker candidate in the General Election. I would, therefore, like to urge the Minister to take this matter into consideration that one of the duties of the Office of the Registrar of Political Parties that should be spelt out clearly is that a register of all members of a political party be maintained. That is the only way we can ensure that members do not belong to two different parties at the same time. Once your name appears on the Registrar's list against your identification number, and in this age of computers, it will be known straightaway that you already belong to more than one party. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, many hon. Members have talked about Clause 6. I would like to say that this is one clause that I will support wholeheartedly. This is because we want parties that have a national outlook or what others would call \"parties that have the face of Kenya\". We do not want political parties that are confined to certain small regions. We also do not want political parties registered because of gender, tribal, racial and other factors which are enumerated in the Bill. More importantly, we do not want political parties that have tribal inclinations. This has been one big problem in this country. We have political parties that tend to be tribal. 964 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES April 25, 2007 Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, clause 6(i)(f) states that, \"... does not allow regular periodic and open election of its office bearers\". It would have been better for this clause to specifically state the time span within which political parties would be required to have open democratic party elections. The way it has been left with the word \"periodic\", it could be after five years or ten years. I would want this clause to be specific even if the elections are held within the constitution of the specific political party. This is an Act to bring sanity in political parties. Many political parties do not conduct regular elections and get away with it. I hope the Minister would consider giving a time span within which parties are required to hold elections. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I know a lot has been said by hon. Members. When you look at the opinion polls in this country, Kenyans are more comfortable with coalitions. I think coalitions are there to stay for sometime. I would, therefore, like a provision in this Bill that talks about coalitions. Mr. Muite mentioned this, but I hope we can pass it as a House. After having gone through the rule of KANU for many years, Kenyans are much more comfortable with coalition arrangements. I hope that, that can also be looked into. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, clause 15 talks about provinces and districts. However, I wish we could look into this because most political parties are recognising constituencies. A constituency is a political unit. I would propose that rather than talk about provinces and districts, we talk about constituencies. If you want a political party to be national and have the face of Kenya, it must have membership in all the constituencies in this country. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, clause 18(e) says, \"---has not, for each of the two previous general elections secured at least five per cent of the national vote\". Again, we come to the same question; how are we going to count the national votes?"
}