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"content": "Thank you, Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, for giving me an opportunity to contribute to this important Bill. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I will start by saying that it is important that at all times, we understand the responsibilities of those working for the Commission. However, I have to say â and I think the Minister has been told before â that in my view, this Bill would have served its purpose best if it went hand in hand with the Bill on elections management. I am saying this because I want to believe that fairness in elections is served by a number of factors which include location of polling stations, criteria for assigning polling stations and centres, locations of tallying centres and clear and unambiguous procedures for appointing part-time staff and workers for the Commission, such as returning officers, presiding officers, deputy presiding officers, clerks and so on. I also think that fairness is served when the operations of the Commission, both at the headquarters and the local level, are served and carried out through open and transparent procedures at all levels. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I know for a fact that the current Members of the IIEC have received a lot of praise. But I have to say that I am one of those people who have been reluctant to praise them, because in my view, they have done nothing which nobody has done before. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, people will remember that the Kivuitu Commission did a referendum which was more challenging than this one, in my view, because the country was almost divided into half. They also came out and performed very well at the mini-general election following the Marsabit air crash. I think we may be rushing to praise the members of this Commission too much and in the process, a lot of things could be going on which may require more scrutiny. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, turning to the Bill itself, I note that Part II on Administration has provisions for regulating the processes by which parties nominate candidates for elections. It also talks about the settlement of electoral disputes, including disputes relating to or arising from nominations, but excluding election petitions and disputes subsequent to the declaration of election results. In my view, and I think the Ministers and some speakers before me have alluded to this, part of the problem we have had with elections in this country is the chaotic, in fact, barbaric manner in which party elections are conducted in Kenya. I remember during the height of the post-election violence, some of the SMSs we used to receive were alluding to the fact that, by allowing the party elections to be the chaos that they were, we actually prepared the ground for what followed at the main elections. So, I think the regulation process by which parties nominate candidates for elections should be very clear. What punishment is there for parties which flout their rules in the nomination of candidates? Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, Clause 5(4) says: âThe chairperson and members of the Commission shall respect the delimitation of duties between the Commission as the policy making organ and its secretariat as the policy implementation and administrative organâ. This is important. If this can be clearly separated, it will be useful for us as a country to completely distinguish the role of the commissioners as opposed to the role of the secretariat because that has been a centre of conflict and we have seen even at the interim commission, there have been times when we have had some conflicts between the secretariat. So, it is important to distinguish the two. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, Clause 6 gives the qualifications for the chairperson of the Commission. I have said it before when we did the Commission for the Implementation of the Constitution that I am against this idea of trying to list qualifications of people into these posts. I have never understood why, when we enumerate these qualifications, we leave out engineers. I am talking as somebody with vested interests. This is a major omission. I am aware that if you go to any country just by knowing the ratio of the citizens to engineers, you will be able to tell whether the country is developed or not. An example is China where the ratio between citizens and engineers currently stands at about one engineer for 150 citizens. In Kenya, it stands at one engineer for about 20,000 to 30,000 citizens. I do not need to tell you which country between Kenya and China is more developed. I do not understand. I do not see how an engineer cannot be useful in managing elections. I need to be convinced. If you look at, Clause 6(2)(b), the Minister should note that at this point in time that with so many graduates in this country, it is important that those who hold these positions must, as a requirement, hold a post graduate degree. A basic degree is something that people now do from the armchairs of their houses. I think we need to appreciate that the country has grown. That should really also apply to the chief executive and the secretary. I will be proposing an amendment here. This requirement that the CEO should have at least five years proven experience, I am just looking at myself. I left the university when I was in my early twenties. Five years later, I was still about 27 years. Are we saying that with all the requirements and all risks which go with it, would we be comfortable with a 27 year old as the CEO of the IEBC? I think in my view, we cannot. Whether we like it or not, experience is an issue in some of these things. It is a known fact that no matter how brilliant you are, I have never heard of any university in the world which teaches experience. Experience is something that you gain because you have been around. Much as we are not stating it, I would be quite uncomfortable with anybody below the age of 30 years heading the Commission. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I have looked at Clause 29(3) and I think it is important that we should add Clause 29(4) which will require--- We have done it before in some of the related Bills that we have done, that because of the importance of the work of the Commission, I think we should make it a requirement that any regulations that they will make for the day to day running of the Commission should be subjected to debate and approval in this House. This is because some of the regulations that these people make have got very far reaching effects. I think it is important that we put them into scrutiny. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, turning to First Schedule, I do not know what this Bill intends to achieve. Clause 1 says:- âFor the purposes of this Act, the President shall, within 14 days of the commencement of this Act or within twenty one days of a vacancy arising in a Commission, appoint a Selected Panel comprising of a chairperson and eight members drawn from distinguished professionals in private sector or the public service with relevant expertise.â Who are distinguished professionals? I would request the Minister that let us try to elaborate on terms like âdistinguishedâ and âoutstandingâ, so that we know for a fact what we are talking about when we talk about âdistinguished professionals in private sector or public service with relevant expertiseâ. I think this clause can be opened up because as it stands, it is a bit too vague. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I was just looking at Article 13(4) of the Second Schedule where it says: âA member or employee of the Commission shall not transact any business or trade with the Commissionâ."
}