Entry Instance

HTTP 200 OK
Allow: GET, PUT, PATCH, DELETE, HEAD, OPTIONS
Content-Type: application/json
Vary: Accept

{
    "id": 470698,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/470698/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 210,
    "type": "other",
    "speaker_name": "",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "Let us look at why we did this and the thinking of Parliament and Kenyans at that time because, generally, this Constitution was voted for by Kenyans. We were intending to have parties that have presence from Mombasa to Kuria and from Turkana to Maasailand. That is the kind of party that ODM is, and I am proud to be in it because at least, it meets that requirement. We debated very strongly as to this threshold of 5 per cent of the votes that are cast in an election and we said why do we not make it 20 per cent? Then we thought that if we make it 20 per cent, then there would be very few parties that will ever reach that threshold, and consequently, we will never be developing political parties. The intention of funding these political parties was to develop them so that they are strong. In fact, the biggest problem we have ever had since we started multiparty politics is that if the party is not led by Matiba who was a billionaire, then the party just dies. Immediately Matiba resigned from FORD-(A), it died. Then if it is not led by Jaramogi Oginga Odinga who was a nationalist those days and was larger than life, immediately he died, FORD-(K) split into small pieces. If it is not led by Raila, it breaks into pieces until you form some tribal coalitions and then have something large. The intention was to remove these big landlords; the people who own political parties, so that the party is owned by the people of Kenya who are members and they will do so in two ways. First by paying membership fee and also, if they meet this threshold, but getting some little money from the Exchequer that will help them and make them real national parties, so that even if the leader of the party were to be removed by popular revolt from his party, the party still remains the party. Even if the leader were to die, resign or retire from politics, the party would still remain a party. So, if we go the way that the amendment seeks, then we will not even have made meaning of the reason we were funding political parties. This is because no party will get any money. First of all, it will be shared equally at another threshold. Equally means equally to 100, 200 or 300 parties and then what remains is to be given to a party which has one member in a county. Then the large parties that actually deserve this money to make them really national would collapse."
}