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{
    "id": 334503,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/334503/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 358,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Mr. Kimunya",
    "speaker_title": "The Minister for Transport",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 174,
        "legal_name": "Amos Muhinga Kimunya",
        "slug": "amos-kimunya"
    },
    "content": " Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, I rise to support this Bill, and for very simple reasons. It is a very simple and straightforward Bill. Contrary to some of the issues that have been raised here, if I start with the membership of political parties, I am the Secretary General of Party of National Unity (PNU). I know that we have 79,000 registered members. But across the country, we have more members than that. That is the story in all political parties. Mr. Kiunjuri has given very graphic details about his own party. We witnessed the by-election that took place in Kangema, Ndhiwa and Kajiado North. If you look at the number of people who turned up to nominate candidates at the party nominations, they were in their thousands compared to what was in political parties’ register, which was less than 2,000. So, there is a total disconnect between the membership of political parties as we know and the registered members as we have in the register. So, it is important that we, first of all, remember that this amendment is not seeking to open party nomination to all and sundry. It is basically saying--- I want to read the current Section 29(1), which is intended to be amended. It reads:- “The person to nominate a presidential, parliamentary, county governor and county assembly candidate shall be registered members of the candidate’s political party.” What this amendment is seeking to do is to remove registered and basically say “shall be members of the candidate’s political party”. So, it is up to that political party to determine who their members are. Who are your members? How do you identify your members? Is it by putting some bands on them? Is it by putting some necklaces on them? Is it by giving them a card? Is it by putting them at the back of an exercise book? That is for political parties to determine. That is how you promote political parties to take charge of their own destiny. Immediately you leave it that the membership of a party is based on some register that is controlled from outside, you are going to have political parties that submit their forms for registration with the Registrar of Political Parties, probably a week before the deadline, finding that there is a big queue and their members will be denied an opportunity to nominate their own candidates. It is important that we recognize these facts because the reality is very different from the expectations."
}