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"speaker_name": "Mr. Muturi",
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"content": "Thank you, Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, for giving me this opportunity to say a few words about the President's Address yesterday. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, among many things that the President talked about and, indeed, what some of my colleagues have just been addressing, is that the President, in his Address, appeared to place some value on dialogue. He emphasised that there is need for dialogue for us to be able to agree on the way forward, particularly on the issue of constitutional review. However, we must be able to read the President's intentions from his past, and particularly, recent past conduct. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, there was a gentleman's agreement in the IPPG negotiations of 1997 regarding the mode of appointment of commissioners of the Electoral Commission of Kenya. Indeed, towards the tail end of the last Session, we discussed here that it is a normal practice in most modern democracies that when you are appointing commissioners to an electoral body, because they will be dealing with contests between political parties, there is great desire to consult those political parties that are recognised in any country. But what did we see? It is particularly in that area that we expected to see a lot of consultation through dialogue. As the President reads his Speech to us, we can say: \"Yes, in fact, two to three months ago, 38 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES March 21, 2007 we witnessed this because through dialogue, we were able to agree on the number of commissioners that each political party would nominate to the Electoral Commission of Kenya (ECK) to replace those whose tenures had expired.\" We all know that did not happen. Therefore, even as we read this Speech by the President where he emphasises dialogue, we must ask ourselves: \"Is he serious? Does he really mean it?\" Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, a lot of the stuff that has been said here has been repeated several times. On the question of the Political Parties Bill, indeed when you read through the President's Speech, one tends to think it is a very exciting statement. If, indeed, he believes we need stable political parties, what examples has he led with in the last approximately two-and-a-half years? What we have seen is the raiding of political parties. Through dubious means, he has attempted to acquire political parties. Therefore, even as we look at the Speech we must actually be very careful. We must not begin to applaud too early. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I have no quarrel with the creation of new constituencies or districts. We must be able to differentiate the process from the results. However, during the Eighth Parliament we were told that the process which was used to create new districts was an irregular one and, indeed, the courts of law did uphold that position. All that I am saying today is that whoever wrote the Speech for the President should have actually not included that date. He should just have brought the legislation to legalise because what we are admitting by this is that we have actually done something irregularly, but we would want Parliament to come and regularise it. There is a process called post-facto approval. What the President is saying is that has already happened and that he knows we did not follow any particular law. We should have actually had a law to do it and we have not, but we will be doing it. The danger of that is admitting that there was no law and presuming or assuming that Parliament will pass that law as brought and it may not happen. That means we will remain with the irregular position that obtained both in the previous regime and which obtains even in the current regime. So, really the issue here is that we should not even be quarrelling about it. All I am saying is that: \"Please, now that we have noted that we have been acting irregularly as we have acted in several other ways, please, bring that Bill sooner than later.\""
}