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"id": 48634,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/48634/?format=api",
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"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Mr. George Nyamweya",
"speaker_title": "",
"speaker": null,
"content": "Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I want to, very quickly, touch on certain very important things. The Commission must be truly independent. You cannot subordinate it to any other organ. What would be the purpose of subjecting the appointments of the chairperson, the deputy chairperson and all the other members of the Commission to the approval of the entire National Assembly if we are not going to give them the authority to manage elections? The very reason as to why we want them subjected to this process is so that they can have confidence and the approval of the National Assembly of Kenya. In that respect, I cannot quite comprehend why the Minister would want to have some of them as part-timers. If the very basis for working on this is to ensure that we all have some stake in the Commission, are we going to say: âThose whom this side of the House is comfortable with will start in a yearâs time or in two yearsâ time?â Of course, one may wonder what the relevance of his joining the Commission is if already the infrastructure of the Commission will have been done by the time he joins it. The Minister will not get the consensus he is seeking from this House. So, I plead with fellow hon. Members that we, at least, agree and do this one together. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I have something to say about the chairperson of the Commission. Part of the Supreme Courtâs work is going to be arbitrating if there is a presidential election dispute or a presidential election petition. If that is partly the work of the Supreme Court, why would we want the chair of the Commission to have lower qualifications than those required for a judge of the Supreme Court? It would surely make more sense for the qualifications of the chair of the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission to be similar to those of a judge of the Supreme Court, because it is that chairperson who will also be announcing the results of the presidential election. So, I would urge the Minister to reconsider this particular provision. Secondly, the Minister wants a substantive deputy chairperson for the Commission. We are now vetting judges for appointment to the Offices of the Chief Justice and the Deputy Chief Justice. The qualifications for those two offices seem to be similar. We are investing so much time in this institution. Why would we also not want to invest a similar amount of time in the chair and deputy chair of the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission? They should have similar qualifications? Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, another issue we should give attention to is that of the Secretary, who will be the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Commission. Surely, even if we intend to avoid micro-management of the Commission, we need to have somebody who has strong qualifications, and not just five yearsâ experience. How would you manage a country of 40 million people with five yearsâ experience? We need to have somebody who has adequate experience. I have no problem with which particular field of study he may come from, but that person must be somebody who has been able to manage some organisations which require some form of experience. As we all know, the Departmental Committee on Justice and Legal Affairs, which is currently being vilified, did, in fact, bring a report to the House. That report, very carefully and consciously, negotiated the very difficult areas that any Commission will face. I do not think we want to destroy the gains made by the Ligale Commission and the Departmental Committee on Justice and Legal Affairs. I believe that it is something we should build on. If we want to re-open the whole thing, then we will never be in time even for the elections. So, we must build on what we have gained. Soon after the promulgation of the Constitution, I remember the words of the President. He said that he had asked the late President Kenyatta how he managed to put the people together. I recall the words were: âkeep the gains that you have made. Secure those ones and then move on to the next onesâ. But the way we are going about our things is as if we want to re-open everything. We want to go back to the National Accord and start everything afresh. We have got to a point where we should move from where we are to the next level. I plead with my fellow Members, please, let us not lose the gains that we have achieved through the Ligale Report. I think they are important. The other thing that I want to talk about is the question of funding. It must be very clear that, we, as a country, must have respect for our sovereignty and any money that we want, even if we have to get it from elsewhere, must go through the Treasury. Otherwise, we are not going to allow other countries through the NGOs and other bodies to manage our affairs for us. We must be clear that whatever money there is, even if it has to be raised by our development partners, should be channelled through the Treasury, so that it is Kenyan money which is managing Kenyan elections. I do not think we can compromise on that. Finally, I believe there are certain other Bills which must come to the House in the coming few weeks. If we do not pass them, just setting up this Commission has not solved our problems. I have in mind, particularly the Elections Bill. If we do not have a way of conducting our campaigns in relation to our expenditure, then we are not going to have free and fair elections. So, I want to plead with the Minister to bring that on board and sort out the county boundaries, so that our people can understand them. We were not forthright with the councilors that they may well have lost their jobs. Let us sort out the boundaries for the counties, so that our people can know the new set up, so that when they begin campaigns, because they have began the campaigns and you are not going to stop them, at least, they know what they are campaigning for, how they are campaigning for it and the wards in which they are operating in. With those remarks, I wish to support the Bill with amendment."
}