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{
"id": 334478,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/334478/?format=api",
"text_counter": 333,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Mr. Kiunjuri",
"speaker_title": "The Assistant Minister for Public Works",
"speaker": {
"id": 175,
"legal_name": "Festus Mwangi Kiunjuri",
"slug": "mwangi-kiunjuri"
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"content": " Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, we really called for a new Constitution for this country and all of us could not agree. We allowed each and every idea to be in the Constitution. At the same time, we went ahead to allow every idea to be in further enabling Acts. Today, all of us are looking back. We are all regretting why we passed that legislation or the other. We had no time to sit down and reason together. It is evident on us now that we are realizing that, in fact, what we did was not even good to ourselves as Members of Parliament. There is lamentation all over that this could not have been allowed to go through. We allowed angels to take over our work as Parliament. It is very shameful of us today that we do not believe in what is in the legislation. Yet we are the same people who first passed all these legislations. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, today we have no time to ask ourselves: “Are we going to be able to empower the institutions that we are creating in only one year or a few months to be able really to allow them exercise and, at least, have the democratic space that this country required?” Yes, we had very good ideas, but they were all theoretical. If you look at the practical part of it, it is not really practically possible. For example, we have the office of the Registrar of Political Parties. It is not decentralized so far to deal with issues of political parties. So, everything is done at the centre which is Nairobi. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, it is true although hon. Midiwo exaggerated the membership of the ODM that it has six million members and you expect the party to have the same number. If you go to the Registrar of Political Parties, the Grand National Union (GNU) has 78,000 registered members. Even in terms of respect, we only want to respect those parties that have presidential candidates. Even our own media houses are violating the law because we are supposed to be given equal opportunity. If we have 47 to 50 political parties, let us respect them. We know, by the end of the day, some political parties will not win elections. However, coming back to the number of people registered by political parties, my own constituency, Laikipia East, I have registered 68,000 members. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, in the whole of Laikipia County, we have registered over 100,000 members of the GNU, but what is appearing at the Office of the Registrar is only 6,622 and I have the list here and I can show you. That is what is appearing at the Office of the Registrar. Of all the effort they have made from November last year, one year down the line, they cannot capture the membership. Even if we say that half of them do not qualify, who are the 50,000 who qualify? Likewise, the PNU and the TNA have members in Laikipia. If we want to boast of how many people we have, we should all be ashamed if those big parties cannot even attain one million members at the Office of the Registrar. If you divide 160,000 by 290 constituencies, it tells you that they do not even have 1,000 members in the constituencies. Again, we are inviting dictatorship within the parties and allowing, I do not know whether it is parliamentary to use the word “thugs” within the parties to take control of the nominations. Today, I will identify where the 6,000 members in Laikipia County are. If I want to rig for one of the candidates, I will ensure that the area he comes is the only area where the register will come from. We have no time and even if we pretend today that we want the Registrar to go back to the constituencies and ensure that the data is fed to their computers, they have no capacity. At the end of the day, either we allow the parties to bring their own registers or take them to the Registrar, failure will occur. So, let the parties manage their own affairs. Let the GNU organize its register all over, but as a rider, we should ensure that the constituency election co- ordinators and other officials certify the registers. The registers should be certified with the agreement of all the candidates of that party. Once again, if we are not going to protect some of the people within those parties, the loyalty issues of who is who and who can buy the nomination certificate will still occur. That means that if I do not like my brother and he belongs to my party, I have the opportunity to ensure that he will never see Parliament; that the people of Bomet, Laikipia or Chepalungu will not have their democratic right to elect their own Member of Parliament. This is what is happening. Internal democracy even within the parties is not there. Already we have people campaigning for their big parties, but at the end of the day, some of them are already assured that they have certificates. Some of us are issuing them because we do not have many candidates campaigning within the party, but I pity the ones who are already crowded in their parties. So, all of us should be in agreement that we must live with the past. We made those mistakes. Let parties manage their own affairs. Let the ODM continue with its usual way of doing things with their two or three million people who are translated to six million, but I wish them well. Let internal democracy work. So, I do not support this amendment. At the same time, let us ask ourselves: How many more legislations have we brought about that require amendments? We fought for freedom but again, we want to curtail our people. We have fought so hard, but at the end of the day, we are using the already existing institutions. The media houses that fought for democracy are the same ones being used to fight one party against the other. They are the ones deciding on who should appear and you wonder when we will do things in a free way. When it comes to the issue of registration and the issuance of ID cards, again, we must ask ourselves one question: Have we ever been honest with ourselves? Even those who are supporting that provisional certificates should be used to vote, we must ask ourselves one question: How do you certify that a Kenyan has attained the age of 18 years? You only carry one certificate, namely, the birth certificate. Can we manipulate the issue of birth certificates? The answer is yes we can do that. We can manipulate and manufacturer our own birth certificates. When you present that birth certificate, nobody cares to ask you how you got it as long as it is stamped “Kakamega District Hospital”. The guy is already so tired. We pay them badly. By 10.00 o’clock, they are already tired and not interested in what is going on. They will not have an opportunity to verify whether those certificates are issued by the district hospital or other mandated bodies. What will happen? If this Bill is passed, for example, I will go back to Laikipia and take all the young men and women whose physical appearance suggest that they are 18 years old. I will manufacturer my own certificates at River Road. If you can get a degree in 20 minutes at River Road, what will stop you from getting as many birth certificates as you want and distribute them to every child in your constituency? Let us be honest to ourselves. Is this really what we want to do for the country?"
}