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{
    "id": 27706,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/27706/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 240,
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    "speaker": null,
    "content": "Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I think an amendment will be in order for us to be able to align ourselves with the aspirations of the Bill of Rights, and the reason the rights were made explicit that there should be no restriction at the time of voter registration and voting for Kenyans to be able to exercise their democratic right and space. I want to draw the attention of the Minister again to Clause 6 of this Bill. It gives the mandate to the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) to determine when to close inspection of voter registers. If that mandate has been transferred to the Commission now and it has not been made open in this Bill, then the Commission must be made to publicize such closures in the daily newspapers for Kenyans to know that the voter registration exercise or the inspection of the voter registers will close on such a date. This will enable members of the public, in earnest to make sure that they verify their names on the register without being prejudiced. I am a bit concerned with this issue of the Commission trying to sanitize the registers at any one given time and finding out who is dead and who is not. What is the information mechanism? How will the Commission know that such and such a person died? If we do not make clear the reporting system on which the Commission is supposed to be notified, then we might end up with people being deleted from the register on wrong information that they were dead, when actually they are alive and kicking. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I also want to go to Clauses 12 and 13. Clause 12(2) says that when a Magistrate Court declares on any claim by someone to be registered, there shall be no appeal arising from that declaration by the Magistrates Court. However, Clause 13 goes ahead and gives the mandate to a registered voter to object to the registration of that person. If the threshold was so high that once the Magistrate Court decides on your registration and no appeal can be entertained forthwith, what validly does someone have, just because he is a registered voter to come and object to such registration? I think there is a bit of contradiction in that. The political parties are forced under Clause 14 to nominate candidates three months before elections, while several other parts of this Bill try to limit the rights of the Members of Parliament to exercise the freedom of association. There is one thing people are trying to call here “party hopping”, but if parties were democratic enough, their members would not be quitting them for other parties. I would like to draw the attention of this House to the fact that 60 per cent of the Members of this House were people who were shortchanged by their parties before."
}