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"speaker_name": "Mr. Midiwo",
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"legal_name": "Washington Jakoyo Midiwo",
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"content": "This is one clause that Members passed, but did not know the implication. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, a registered member is defined in this law as that person who is registered by the Registrar of Political Parties. It is not only the person who has been registered as a member of a political party. As it currently obtains, the Registrar of Political Parties does not have the capacity to undertake this process. We are saying that political parties need to come up with the necessary framework to register their own members. As it were, there are several people, even in my constituency, who know that they are in ODM. But because of the lack of capacity in that office, you will find that they are members of other political parties. The law says that the person who shall nominate you, even you, as a Member of Parliament, shall be registered by the registrar of political parties. It, therefore, means that today, if I go for my nomination and the person in my constituency, who is a holder of an ODM political party card and his or her name is missing from the Registrar of Political Parties, I shall have been unduly nominated. My nomination shall not be legitimate. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, it also pre-supposes that the registrations we are doing should have been done after people are registered as voters. However, we have been registering people before. Therefore, basically the process is unattainable. Even yesterday when I was at home, my people who managed to check that register were saying they have been registered in Gem, but their names are showing in Migori. It is something we could do without. However, I think the intension was noble and I think that, in future, we may go that way. That process of registration must be gradual, so that the system could have and bear some integrity. There is the big issue of political party membership cards fraud. The biggest business in this town today is the printing of political party membership cards. It is big business. In fact, I know the biggest one is happening in TNA. I have met somebody who is doing the actual printing. All candidates are busy distributing those cards. When it will come to the day of elections, what shall ensue? You will find that somebody who intended to nominate Mr. Waititu, for example, in Kayole, but because their names shall be missing from the registrar, the chaos that will ensue is not what this country would want to see at political party levels, especially after what happened in 2007. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, we will end up with a whole host of candidate who have cards; cards that are not legitimate and they have registered people. Thereafter, because the law now says they cannot cross to other political parties, they will be locked out of the electioneering process. So, the most important thing is to put integrity and involve political parties in putting that integrity in that process. That process was noble. But because the Office of the Registrar of Political Parties, as we know it today, is not the one that is envisaged in law--- We have not funded that office as Parliament. In future, we will seek to have that office independent and give it the necessary facilitation, so that it could control the duty given to it. This Parliament cannot let the opportunity to correct that pass. As we go to the Committee Stage, I want to plead for support. There is even a worse one which I would like Members to use this amendment to pass. This Act says that you shall not distribute any poster before the election period is declared. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, even today, you saw people wearing ODM hats and somebody distributed them. You saw it in Mombasa and Nakuru during the TNA and URP meeting. We are breaking the law. Those things could be avoided. How do you break the law by just wearing a hat? How do you break the law by just trying to get known? How will candidates get known if they have to wait for that period to be declared? It is good that we streamline this process, so that it could be peaceful rather than confrontational. I move and ask Mr. Waititu to second."
}