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{
    "id": 35334,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/35334/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 349,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Mr. Wetangula",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 210,
        "legal_name": "Moses Masika Wetangula",
        "slug": "moses-wetangula"
    },
    "content": "Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I thank you for the opportunity to also laud the Minister for bringing this Bill in conformity with the new Constitution. Like the previous speaker, this Bill is repealing an existing Act which we negotiated, debated and passed in this House and whose implementation has been very poor. Its implementation has actually been very wanting. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, the Minister has indicated and rightly so, the urgency of passing this law. I want to urge him that the memoranda he says he has received and the many more issues being said on the Floor, he should take them into account. I also want to urge that the Committee on Justice and Legal Affairs whose issue Mr. George Nyamweya raised here do not have to be told to do their work. Once the Bill has gone through the First Reading, they should take it up and work on it. The Committee on the Implementation of the Constitution (CIC) should also be able to give us a report and guidance on what they see in this Bill. This Bill is timely, important and after being passed must be implemented. The Minister should in the course of coming back for Third Reading, look at a series of clauses that I would wish to point out to him and see how best he can try to improve the Bill. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, the office of the Registrar has been made unnecessarily too strong. Too much power is being vested in one individual and that can easily be abused. In my view, while the Registrar will have the authority to administer the Fund, I would propose that the Registrar should administer this Fund with some trustees who can help in determining how the funds can be distributed other than have one individual. I also suggest that where the Registrar finds that a person has transgressed the Act as is in Clause 14, I would want the Minister to vary the Bill that in the event it is a Member of Parliament acting dishonestly against the party that brought him to this House either by nomination or election, the person to act to dismiss that person should be the Speaker of Parliament for Parliament and the Speaker of the Senate for the Senate and in the case of the county assemblies, the Speaker of the County Assembly and not the Registrar whom we have seen in many ways reluctant to act. That way the Speaker of Parliament or Senate, once notified will declare the seat of a nominated or elected person who is acting contrary to the constitution of his or her party vacant. Such a person should vacate immediately. That is the only way we can bring sanity to politics and weed out dishonesty. A person fails elections; he is magnanimously nominated to Parliament by a party and goes out there to say that the party that nominated him to Parliament is dead. He does this while he still enjoys the perks of this House on the basis of a party he thinks is dead. This kind of dishonesty must be weeded out in our political set up if we want to have sanity in the politics of this country. The Bill also indicates in Article 9(2) about the contents of the constitutional roles of political parties. It says:- “The Registrar may by notice in writing require a political party to amend its name” Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, it should not just be the Registrar. It can be on anybody’s complaint. For example, if you have a political party like NARC(K) and some dishonest characters come up and call themselves New NARC(K), you do not have to wait for the Registrar to do it on her own. Any complainant should be able to write to the Registrar, so that the Registrar can act. So, I urge the Minister to look at Article 9(2), so that colouring the name of a political party by calling it “new”, “new arrival” or whatever, is not something that should be tolerated or accepted."
}