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{
    "id": 28964,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/28964/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 678,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Mr. Kimunya",
    "speaker_title": "The Minister for Transport",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 174,
        "legal_name": "Amos Muhinga Kimunya",
        "slug": "amos-kimunya"
    },
    "content": " Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I beg to oppose the Motion by Dr. Eseli. I was here throughout the session of the Committee of the whole House. I listened to the deliberations. For the benefit of the hon. Members who may not have been here, and who may be persuaded differently, Clause 14 was debated at length. There are two issues which the Mover and the Seconder of this Motion have mentioned. I would like to clarify what happened. On the issue of saving the old Clause 17, which is basically to allow members who are in a coalition arrangement to promote the activities of the parties within the coalition, indeed, an amendment was brought to Clause 10 by hon. Njeru Githae. The amendment was moved but the Committee said that there were no coalitions. We brought back coalitions because Clause 14 which was proposed by the Committee had left out that bit. This was re-introduced by hon. Githae through an amendment which said that the limitation on the promotion of activities of a party within a coalition shall not apply to members in a coalition. So, that was already said and we do not need to go back to reintroduce a matter that has already been sorted out. On the second matter that was introduced to this House as an amendment by Dr. Nuh, indeed, there is a notice required for a member to quit or resign from a political party. The spirit of the amendment, as I got it and as we discussed on the Floor of this House was that, once a member has decided they are resigning from a political party--- The amendment that had been brought by the Committee was basically saying that once you give that notice, it will not take effect until after 14 days. The issue was, once somebody has decided they do not want to be in a political party, you cannot force them by law to continue belonging to that political party because that goes contrary to the Constitution which gives freedom of association. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, that was the spirit of that amendment. Once a person has decided they are not a member of a political party, give them the freedom to go. That does not mean that they will be allowed to go to other parties because there are other provisions within the Constitution and there will be provisions within the electoral laws and political parties in terms of what they can do or what they cannot do. We must look at it, not just in the context of the example that has been given, that on the election day or nomination day, a member could be bought off and he resigns. Take the case of a member dying on the nomination day. Do you postpone their death for 14 days and recognize that they are still members and they have not died? Let us open up our minds and remember what we should be looking at in terms of the actions that were done by a member when he was a member of the political party. Such actions will continue to be binding on him so long as he was a member of the political party at that point. But once a person has resigned, and supposing that member is the chairman, do you then continue having them in the bank, signing cheques for 14 days because he is bound by law to continue being a member of the party? Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I think that is the spirit of the discussion. So our reopening of this Clause 14 will not be adding value. With so much business that we have to conduct today and in the next few days, I would urge Members that let us continue with the matter as it is. Let us look at the Act when fully finalized and we can still come back here for an amendment, should the need so arise, once we have seen the full implication of all these amendments that were brought by the Committee. I can confirm to you that all these amendments were brought in good faith and address the fears that have been raised by the two Members who moved and seconded. With those words, I beg to oppose the move to get the matter back to the Committee."
}