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"id": 27443,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/27443/?format=api",
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"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Mr. Orengo",
"speaker_title": "The Minister for Lands",
"speaker": {
"id": 129,
"legal_name": "Aggrey James Orengo",
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"content": " Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I stand to second this Bill. I, again, commend the Minister for the work he has done in this very challenging period. We are living in very consequential times because everything that we are doing is literally history being written as we perform our legislative duties or as we watch. It will be important to point out that this Bill actually amalgamates very important statutes which now become consolidated in this Bill. I think that is a good idea because previously we had three separate Acts of Parliament dealing with the matters that are dealt with in this Bill; the National Assembly and Presidential Elections Act and with the various regulations and rules that were made under that Act, Election Offences Act which now becomes part of this Bill and the other statute that has several provisions repealed is the Local Government Act. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, the fact that we are having the Electoral Law in one document or in one legislation is commendable. It was quite a task for the Minister to go through all these statutes and consolidate them into one deal making sure that any essential elements of those previous Acts were not left out and at the same time making sure that the new law was consistent with the Constitution that was promulgated last year. I just wanted to point out why we really need this Bill. With the Arab spring, we have seen that not having elections can lead to civil conflict and disobedience such as the ones we are seeing in the Arab world and in the Middle East. You can also have elections but if they are not free and fair, again, those elections can lead to conflict. Therefore, what this Bill wants to achieve is to ensure that we have a level playing field and free and fair elections. There was a time at the beginning of Independence of this country; that is the first five, six or seven years, the elections were not too bad. They were generally free and fair but beginning from 1969, we went through a period where there were all forms of election rigging or activities of the State which resulted to some form of rigging. For example, in the first 15 years of this Republic, we saw many assassinations which were used as a mechanism of excluding some people from being in public office. They include the Late Tom Mboya and the Late J.M. Kariuki. All these people were assassinated and taken out of this Parliament through that process. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, there was another practice that was very popular at that time, which I thank God we have completely abolished in the new Constitution. That was detention. If it was not detention, they were malicious prosecutions like the one of Mark Mwithaga who was charged with the offence of assaulting his wife. Despite the fact that the wife denied that she had been assaulted, he was still convicted. It was something worth noting that even with those malicious prosecutions, convictions and imprisonment Mark Mwithaga still won the election. The other thing was the establishment of the de jure one party State which again closed the democratic space. When we had the de jure one party state and we had a second president, there used to be a gentleman in this House whom I had a privilege of serving with in this House. That was the Late hon. Chotara who once said that there was a man at the university called “Karl Marx” who was causing a lot of problems. He said that Karl Marx should be put away or detained and Kenya would be at peace. But he had another wonderful idea. He said that since the then president was Baba na Mama and that he knew who was good and bad, we should let him go to every constituency and say that this man is the Member of Parliament for the area. Well, that happened to some extent but it was never part of the law of Kenya. There was also the use of institutions like the DCs and the PCs some of whom used to be returning officers. They interfered with the electoral process in many ways and many people failed either to present their nomination papers or were not allowed to participate freely in election campaigns. For example, the Late J.M. Kariuki won an election although he was not allowed to hold any public meetings or conduct any campaigns. So, this law, in essence, is trying to make all these history so that we can have free and fair elections. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, right from the second part of this Bill, and in keeping with the Constitution, the Bill entrenches the right to vote. I think this is important because in the previous constitution, the right to vote was not clearly spelt out. This is a political right that in many international instruments is clearly spelt out and it is good that it is in this law. Regarding the registration process, in Clause 4 on page 923, the registers that will be kept by the Commissioners are spelt out so that there is no doubt at the time of inspection or at any other time when you want to look at the register which registers would be available for inspection. This is to ensure that the record keeping is part of the transparency and ensuring that the electoral process is free and fair. The other important provision, which probably my learned Senior referred to is Clause 10. For emphasis, let me talk about this clause which talks about eligibility to vote. This time round, you can use an identification document and we will make sure that the identification documents for the future may not be just a passport or an identity card but one document that will serve for all purposes. However, on the eligibility to vote, the use of identification document has been liberalized so that it is not just the identity card as it was at some point. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, Clause 16 concerns those who will run as presidential candidates. They stand forewarned that in the middle of the election after nominations you cannot change your running mate. After the first round of voting, if you do not meet the threshold, you cannot divorce your running mate. You are tied to the running mate until the conclusion of the elections. I think that is a good practice because the same team that is declared number one or two goes to the electorate for the run-off. Clause 24 is about qualifications for nominations as the presidential candidate. It is clearly stated in that clause and for good reason that those who would be running for the presidency must be citizens by birth. There will be dual citizenship but if you want to run for the presidency you must be a citizen by birth because we cannot expect that you have a head of state who owes allegiance to several states or jurisdictions. I had made a lot of notes but in fairness to the interest in this Bill, I want to go to what the chair was pointing out. I agree with him that the provision in Clause 109 should be spelt out more clearly because if you are imposing sanctions then they should be set out in the statute and they should not be left to the Electoral Commission to consider what sanctions to impose. The clause about harambee is a very good provision. When I first came to Parliament, if elections were being conducted the way they are being done today, I would not have won an election. There were many like me in that House. Mr. Mwachofi campaigned on foot because he did not have a car. At least, I had a borrowed car although I did not have a house or wife but I still managed to win. These days unless you have a war-chest of some magnitude, you cannot be able to win any election and a wife or a husband becomes a qualification. However, we are living in new times and I think these qualifications are no longer there. I want to say that this is a good law for the elections to be held next year. However, it is good so long as those who are given responsibility, including the Electoral Commission and the leadership in this country ensure that we have free and fair elections. If the leaders are not committed to the call that is entrenched in this law then we may not have free and fair elections. So, I plead with all of us that it is part of our duty to keep Kenya going as a Republic based on democracy and the rule of law, and where elections are the mechanism to ensure that those who are elected as leaders have some element of accountability to the nation. The era of stealing elections is over. It does not pay and all over the world we are seeing that stealing elections, whether your people have the capacity to say “No”, the whole world would say “No” and you will end up in a lot of problems and also put your country in a state of disaster. I think it is upon us to make sure that this election law becomes part of our culture and part of the way we run our affairs."
}