Entry Instance

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

{
    "id": 48607,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/48607/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 459,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Mr. Obure",
    "speaker_title": "The Minister for Public Works",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 118,
        "legal_name": "Christopher Mogere Obure",
        "slug": "christopher-obure"
    },
    "content": "Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, the ability and capacity to conduct smooth, open and fair elections is a prerequisite for peace and stability in any country. It is also a prerequisite for long-term prosperity of any country. Poorly managed or bungled elections are always a recipe for chaos and instability. We have seen a great deal of that in Africa. We have seen these examples even in our country. In 1988, the then governing party, KANU, conducted its nominations through what we called “the queue voting system”. In that year, we saw people who had very short queues and, therefore, few supporters being declared as winners. We also saw those with long queues, meaning huge support, being declared the losers. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, the rigging that took place that year created fertile ground for general dissatisfaction among the population; to the extent that, there was loss of confidence in the Government, in the leadership of the Government and the institutions responsible for governance. We must admit that what happened that year contributed to the downfall of KANU a little later. We also saw it in 2007. I am sure many of us have fresh memories of what happened in that year. Failure by the then ECK to conduct the elections in a transparent and impartial manner led to a breakdown of law and order. What happened and what we witnessed is something we want to forget very quickly. We do not want to see a repeat of that at any time in our lifetime or even after. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, it happened because the results which were declared by the ECK were not generally accepted by the population. They were not perceived as being a reflection of the people’s feelings. Subsequent elections have been held. We have seen by-elections in various places in the country. We saw by elections conducted in Kinango, Bomachoge, Shinyalu"
}