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{
    "id": 47745,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/47745/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 288,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Mr. M. Kilonzo",
    "speaker_title": "The Minister for Justice, National Cohesion and Constitutional Affairs",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 47,
        "legal_name": "Mutula Kilonzo",
        "slug": "mutula-kilonzo"
    },
    "content": " Thank you very much. I am very grateful, Sir. I was not joking when I said you will go into the history books. This is a turning point. When we consider Article 251 and we read it together with Article 250(6), it is clear that once a Commissioner is appointed, he cannot be reappointed, and he can only serve a continuous term of six years. Once you consider that, the minimum that they must be is three. Then it gave us problems in drafting to determine how best to ensure that in 2017, because nobody in Kenya today knows who will be President, and we do not want to end up with the problems that we have had, whereby, again, we find manipulations. We want to put these issues of electoral fraud into the back banner and forget about them. That is why we have recommended to the country - it is not binding because this House must still determine. However, I want to suggest to those who are contemplating bringing amendments that this is not a simple matter as it looks. It is complex; we must have a Commission that has four memories in 2017, so that we are not appointing new Commissioners in an election year. Therefore, we used the figure of three, which is the basic minimum bearing in mind that there is Chairman and a deputy by provision of the Constititution. We added two others so that those can also help the country in this processing. Therefore, staggering must not be misunderstood. It was not staggering in order to arm-twist or trick the country. It is a staggering that, I hope, when we come to the Third Reading or the Committee Stage, the country must understand that the time to move away from the thinking; who represents me, who will speak in my mother tongue in this issue, is long gone. This is because if you accept five then you must understand some regions will wait for 12 months before they are represented. Therefore, it is a matter that must be taken extremely carefully, particularly because of the need for three."
}