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"id": 27431,
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"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Mr. M. Kilonzo",
"speaker_title": "The Minister for Justice, National Cohesion and Constitutional Affairs",
"speaker": {
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"legal_name": "Mutula Kilonzo",
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"content": " Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I am waiting for you to look at me because the hour of reckoning has come for my country. This is the moment that this country has been waiting for. We went on our knees in 2007/2008. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I beg to move that The Elections Bill, 2011, be now read a Second Time. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I know you because I have practised law with you in the past, and we have had issues regarding elections; this is the moment of truth for our country. Therefore, as I pointed out during the debate on the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission Bill that this House passed, the electoral process is too important to be left to trial and error. As an independent country for over 50 years, we have made our many mistakes and this time round, we must make amends. We should recover the ground that we have lost. In efforts to remedy our electoral system, we have attempted several initiatives, beginning with the re-introduction of multi-party democracy in 1991. So, we were allowed to have many political parties. During this period, our electoral management did not advance to the sophistication required in a modern democracy. Again, in 1997, we tried to clarify the functions of the defunct Electoral Commission of Kenya (ECK). We further attempted to expand the ECK by incorporating representatives of political parties, if you remember the Inter-Parties Parliamentary Group (IPPG) formula. These quick fixes, if I may call them so, never addressed the underlying problem – that is a proper institutional electoral framework. Our failure to institute the necessary electoral framework manifested itself during and after the disputed 2007 presidential election results. It was then established that our legal and institutional framework for managing our elections had all but collapsed. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, the independent commission of inquiry into the last general elections popularly referred to as “the Kriegler Commission”, rightly summed up our position. The Kriegler Commission Report contains the most comprehensive policy, legal and institutional recommendations regarding our electoral management process. This Bill takes on board most of the recommendations contained in the said Report. Hon. Members will notice that it is a very bold law. It is one of my regrets that the deal has come so late. I have demanded it in the past. I demanded it severally from the Constitution Implementation Commission (CIC) and the Attorney-General. I demanded its publication because I realised its enormous historical significance for this country. My Ministry hopes that after this Bill becomes law, we will move to the next stage, so that we can recommend to this country, an elaborate mechanism for changing our voter registration from manual to electronic, and our voting system from manual to electronic. However, this is a debate for another day. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, hon. Members will recall that the Kriegler Report recommended that laws relating to the operational management of elections should be consolidated under one statute. This Bill seeks to perform that function and consolidate elections and referenda into one statute. You will find this in the long title of the Bill and in other clauses inside the Bill. The Bill reiterates the fundamental rights guaranteed under Article 38 of the Constitution. The only condition is that a person must be registered in the principal register of voters, considering that this House has already passed the Political Parties Bill, which is awaiting Third Reading. Hon. Members, again, I suggest that you look at Clause 3 of the Bill. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, in addition to all this, we have also made provision in Part VII of the Bill to ensure that election disputes are heard in a just and timely manner. You have noticed what has been going on in the course of last week, and as recently as yesterday, when we swore-in hon. Hassan as the Member of Parliament for Kamukunji, arising from an election dispute which took so long to resolve. Another Member of Parliament has also lost his seat through an election petition. In this regard, therefore, we are proposing to have all electoral disputes other than election petitions determined by the Commission."
}