Entry Instance

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

{
    "id": 504045,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/504045/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 119,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. Keynan",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 41,
        "legal_name": "Adan Wehliye Keynan",
        "slug": "adan-keynan"
    },
    "content": "career while as human beings, family persons, relevant to the society and the international community. Having seen what happens to former hon. Members of Parliament and the trend in our national politics, there are obvious statements I want to make. For the last 25 years that I have served as a politician, the trend in our national politics has not been very good to hon. Members of Parliament, and I do not want to condemn the electorate. In the last Parliament, which you and I had the privilege to serve, 76 per cent of the hon. Members in the 10th Parliament were voted out, courtesy of the wisdom of our electorate. The question which arose in the previous Parliament, which is the 9th Parliament was: Why was 79 per cent voted out? In This 11th Parliament, I can certainly predict that about 80 per cent of us will be former hon. Members of Parliament in the coming Parliament. The question which arises is: What happens to these critical members of the Kenyan society? Has anyone ever reflected on the state of former hon. Members of Parliament? I appreciate, when you are elected; because of the power, money and the prestige that comes with your office, none of us assumes that we will be voted out. All of us assume that we will be among the 20 per cent who will be re-elected. I urge you to think otherwise and apply the balance of probability and assume you will be among the 80 per cent who will be voted out. If you work on that premise and luckily your voters see sense in your re-election, you will not go through serious psychological trauma. I also want to make an obvious statement that, the hon. Members voted out are not voted out because they are unpopular in their constituencies, rather it is by the leadership of the parties. They will want to cause some generational change after every election. As for the parties you subscribe to here, I want to tell you that they have already identified their candidates and they will take over from you because some of them do not want continuity of your experience and expertise. These are the realities of the Kenyan politics. One time somebody said that, if you look at the Kenyan politics critically, it is politics of man-eat-man society. If you just walk out right now and go to the Members’ Lounge, you will see so many former hon. Members of Parliament. Some of them are as young as 40 years or even younger. When I reflected on this, I looked at some of the best practices in the world, like what happens and how current and former hon. Members are treated in the United States of America (USA), Canada, United Kingdom, Malaysia, Australia and a number of countries where civilized democracies are properly applied. For you to become an hon. Member of Parliament in the USA, it is business. The minute you lose your seat, you are picked by some of the big corporations as a motivational speaker, an experienced expert or advisor and in the process, as a result of the lectures you give; you make a lot of money that maybe you did not make when you were in active politics."
}