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{
    "id": 34933,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/34933/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 336,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Mr. Duale",
    "speaker_title": "The Assistant Minister for Livestock Development",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 15,
        "legal_name": "Aden Bare Duale",
        "slug": "aden-duale"
    },
    "content": " Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, you have been known for many years to be tolerant to people of other faiths. I want to thank you for that. You have a long history. I also want to support this Motion. I think this country has come of age. We have a new Constitution and we want to manage this country. Above all, we have decided, through this Bill, that we must manage political parties. Political parties are very important vehicles for a number of things. Above all, political parties are vehicles for organising political representation. This august House could not have been in place if there were no political parties. Political parties are also vehicles for political competition between many parties. Political parties are also vehicles for democratic accountability. We cannot have political parties which do not breed some accountability within the democratic space. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, political parties are also a link between the state, the people and civil society. It is political parties which influence the way governments are run. They have a very strong influence on the Executive. Through their manifestos and constitutions, political parties formulate public policy. They engage in recruitment of their members. Above all, it is political parties which facilitate the formation of coalitions, however bad or good the coalitions may be. Of course, coalitions become bad when a part of them do not respect the other part of the coalition. We need to build democracy that is based on political parties. I was shocked when I became a Member of Parliament in 2008, and some of us felt that the elections were rigged. I said: “wait a minute”. Rigging started at the political parties’ nominations. Every Member of this House, and those who are out there, can remember what they went through in their own political parties. Today, there are Kenyans out there who should have been in this House but they are out there because their political parties rigged them out. I know that this Bill is a panacea to those problems. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, we must build political party transparency based on parties manifestos and constitutions. The political parties in this country have the best manifestos – manifestos which can turn this country around and make people not see what they are seeing in the people of Northern Kenya. However, party manifestos are created and left in the shelves to gather dust. Constitutions are formulated by political parties, but they are not adhered to. You can see a political party expel a life member of that party before he has died. I am a living example. I am a life member of a political party, but I am now facing a court case. I ask myself: How do you expel a life member from a party when he is still alive?"
}