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{
    "id": 266982,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/266982/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 316,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Mr. G. Nyamweya",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "What is it that we are required to do then? The Act provides that the report be submitted to the relevant Committee. That committee is the Departmental Committee on Justice and Legal Affairs. What is the Committee required to do? It is to take recommendations and memoranda from people. It would be very useful for hon. Members to have a look at the analysis of public petitions in response to IEBC. We received over 500 memoranda from across the country and from many hon. Members. What was the issues being raised in those memoranda? The issues were about representation. If you look at this because Kenya is not a uniform country--- If you go to the Coast - and I will not go through what the Chairman has already gone through - you will find that, perhaps, people who are of the same community of interest or share historical ties have been divided into separate units. Then you are saying that those people are being denied the ability to have representation of people of their own choice. Many people may not know that if you go to the North Eastern part of the country, there is – and I must say this--- All of us emanate from the family, larger family, clan, ethnic community or tribe and the country we call Kenya. But what the IEBC has done is, in some cases, dividing families; the very source of unity; the cohesion of society. You cannot divide people into different areas and ask them to be represented differently when they are members of the same family. The Committee is only saying that where people are of the same family, same clan or same interests, why, for heaven’s sake, not have them together as they, themselves, desire? The IEBC has dealt with a lot of issues about numbers. People are not just numbers! People share! They love each other; they talk to each other and everything that happens in the rural society, there is some cohesion because you are still dependent on your family or clan and so on. In cities, we have moved to where we form associations around our estates where we live. So, people want to have a sense of belonging. What is the National Assembly’s duty in all that exercise? It is to bring people together to live harmoniously. If, therefore, you go to the North Eastern part of Kenya, the IEBC has even forgotten the size. They may think - after looking at a map – that moving one person to another, it looks very easy on the map. But when you go to the ground, you will be talking about 5,000 people from one place, the next 5,000 people are 200 kilometres away. You are asking them to belong to the same ward. Surely it cannot work! So, if you see that, perhaps, in that particular region there are more wards being recommended, it is not because anybody was favouring somebody. It is because of the reality of the communication and geographic features. If you go to the huge constituencies that we have like North Horr and so on, you cannot say that we cannot give you an additional constituency because the numbers do not justify it. But, surely, you can tell them that they can have representation at the county assembly. They can have representation in the manner that they are comfortable with."
}