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"id": 283954,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/283954/?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": "So, I would plead with the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC), and to the person who is going to be appointed the Registrar of Political Parties; that we cannot have a democracy where people have to go to court on everything in order for the court to make a finding. A clear reading of the law should make it possible for men and women of goodwill, if they want this country to move forward, to know what the law says. We now have pretentions of not understand what the Political Parties Act says. Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, we may be very happy now that we face an election, to hope from one party to another – and I am not saying this on the basis that I will not move parties – but at some particular point in time, you will find that, that kind of practice will eventually kill the democratic space in the country. Under the Inter-Parties Parliamentary Group (IPPG) process, there was a provision in Chapter Seven of the Laws of Kenya, which we repealed, so that the President could not appoint as Minister, a Member of Parliament of another political party. In order to appoint anybody from another political party as Minister in the Government that was formed following an election, authority had to be sought from that political party. The law was there but nobody observed it. So, again, KANU, which was then in the Opposition, and which also subsequently did exactly the same things that they were complaining about, found that their Members of Parliament were being taken away either through appointments as Ministers or through patronage. Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, therefore, I would want to tell the Registrar of Political Parties that the law now exists, and that they cannot sit and look at the law and assume that it does not exist. They should be candid and tell the country that “this is the behaviour expected of political parties in the new constitutional dispensation”. Hon. Mungatana will probably agree with me that in many countries, when people develop a particular kind of political culture, they do not even need written law. At the end of the day, may be just from conventions or usage, you come to a position, as a man of honour or woman of honour, and say: “Since I have disagreed with my political party, or since I have disagreed with the movement, I step aside and go back to the people who gave me the mandate to represent them here.” I find it shear hypocrisy that we used to complain about these things when KANU was in power but now that the situation has changed and we are sitting comfortably, it is very difficult to give effect to these particular provisions of the law. Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, another area we should look at, which, again, may be a subject of general comment for me, are the proposed amendments to The Elections Act. I invite hon. Members to look at these amendments, which seek to clarify certain qualifications and in what manner they will be recognised. I think that is important. Another aspect is the proposal to change the time required to submit nominations rules from a period of six months to a period of three months. Maybe, in these times when not everything is in place, that particular requirement may be well advised, but I invite my colleagues to examine it. Finally, on The Elections Act, we need to amend Section 112 because as it stands now, it will be very difficult to carry out a by-election because the Act seems to only contemplate by-elections after the first elections to be held under the new Constitution but the current Parliament is operating largely under the provisions of the old Constitution. So, there is some justification for us to look into this area. Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, members of the public are talking about Members of Parliament seeking to increase their salaries and so on, through the Statute Law (Miscellaneous Amendments) Bill but if you look at the proposed amendments to The National Assembly Remunerations Act, you will appreciate that the persons who are targeted are not necessarily the entire generality of the Members of Parliament. It is only a specific group within Parliament that is being targeted. Having pointed out the many areas of concern to me, I would like to conclude by saying that in a democracy, you can only exercise power which is derived from some written law. You cannot exercise power that you do not have, or power which the law does not donate to you, or power in respect of which there is no legislation. In this regard, I want to ask His Excellency the President to reconsider the appointments of the County Commissioners because those positions do not exist in any law. Somebody may ask: In which law the positions of County Commissioners are spelt out? Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, if you look generally at previous legislations, including The Public Order Act, you will find that the positions of District Commissioners (DCs) and Provincial Commissioners (PCs) are contemplated in law. They exist somewhere in the statute books. However, the positions of the County Commissioners, who have been appointed, do not exist in any statute. Once you begin to appoint people outside the Constitution or the statutes, it constitutes a breach of the basic structure of the laws. I heard one of the newly appointed County Commissioners say that they have been appointed to co-ordinate security activities in the counties. I was shocked to hear him say so, because the new Constitution, in Chapter 14, spells out the national security organs. So, the whole country knows which organs are recognised as such. The Constitution also spells out the principles of national security. So, it is not like in the old days, where security was seen to be security of the State – that if you were deemed to be doing something against the State, then that necessarily was a matter of national security. For some very good reasons, there having been a mischief we were dealing with, the new Constitution says that national security is subject to the “authority of this Constitution and Parliament”. So, if you appoint people to these senior positions to co-ordinate security in breach of what is spelt out in the Constitution and not in accordance in the manner stipulated in the Constitution, including public participation but without the authority of Parliament, then it means that the Prime Minister or the President can appoint anybody any-howly or can create any position. That in a constitutional order or where the rule of law exists cannot be done. Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, I would like to say that this may have been done in good spirit but if it is not done in accordance with the Constitution, then it cannot stand. It then undermines the devolution pillar of this Constitution which says that what was known as the Provincial Administration must be restructured to conform with - I am not using the exact words - to the institutions of devolution. So, you cannot create a Provincial Administration in a form that is outside the structure of devolution. You must, first of all, create that structure of devolution which is the counties. I remember some Members of Parliament here who thought that we may be caught off guard and amend the County Governments Bill. I remember it was the hon. Member for Bura and hon. Mungatana---"
}