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{
    "id": 35317,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/35317/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 332,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Mr. Githae",
    "speaker_title": "The Minister for Nairobi Metropolitan Development",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 159,
        "legal_name": "Robinson Njeru Githae",
        "slug": "robinson-githae"
    },
    "content": " Thank you, Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir. Let me take this very early opportunity to thank the Minister for Justice, National Cohesion and Constitutional Affairs and his team and all the other parties that were involved in the formulation and establishment of the Political Parties Bill for a job well done. I say “a job well done” because as of last week, there were no constitutional Bills in the House, but now we have some. Therefore, that means that Parliament cannot be accused of not implementing the new Constitution as we had been accused of. If I was the one concerned, I will say that we even finalize this Political Parties Bill today and move on to the others, so that we can be seen to be implementing the Constitution. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, it is very clear and I have no doubt that we will pass this Bill. When we pass it, the days of one person parties is over. The days of briefcase parties are over. The days of identifying a party leader with a party are over. From now henceforth, political parties will be public institutions. They will not be private members clubs or the private property of a particular party leader. To me, that is the biggest achievement we shall have achieved when we pass this Bill. It requires that, first of all, in your governing body, all the counties must be represented. Not more than two-thirds of the opposite gender can fill up all the positions in the governing body. The marginalized groups must be represented in the governing body. Minorities must also be represented. This means that we will no longer have the so called regional parties because that has been the biggest disservice on our political scene where a particular party is recognized as a party belonging to a region. This means that even if an individual went to stand on that ticket in a region perceived to belong to a particular party, you cannot win. We have lost very valuable Members of Parliament because of this perception that the party they belong to does not belong to that region or they are not loyal enough to the party leader, therefore, they cannot be elected. To me, passing this Bill will be the biggest achievement we shall have done. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker Sir, if you look at Article 3(d) where an appointed officer is disqualified from being a member of the governing body. I think we need to insulate our civil servants from engaging in political parties. Whereas this Article prohibits an appointed officer from being a member of the governing body, I think time has come for the Minister for Justice and Constitutional Affairs to take action on the civil servants who are on the trail in the whole country campaigning and they have not resigned. I think it is a very serious issue when we have civil servants using their offices to campaign and yet, when we the political class try to do something, we are told we are interfering with the civil service. They must also not interfere with our calling as politicians. If they want to campaign, let them resign and join us; and we shall welcome them. However, they should not use their offices to campaign. The moment a civil servant declares that he will be a candidate for either the presidency, the governor or any other---"
}