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{
    "id": 52324,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/52324/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 273,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Mr. Orengo",
    "speaker_title": "The Minister for Lands",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 129,
        "legal_name": "Aggrey James Orengo",
        "slug": "james-orengo"
    },
    "content": "Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I can remember one African leader in South Africa who was the Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Lesotho, Chief Jonathan Leboa. One time after an election in which he had been defeated and the electoral commission had announced the results, Chief Leboa, who was the Prime Minister of Lesotho, said, “Yes, you have declared the results of the election; I even accept that I have lost the election, but I am still the Prime Minister of Lesotho”. He accepted that he had lost but continued to be the Prime Minister of Lesotho for nearly eight years, before he was removed through a military coup. In Africa since then there have been such events. There have been sham elections, because either the electoral bodies did not have the independence and autonomy to make the necessary decision, or the electoral process itself or law had internal weaknesses. Having said that, I would like to talk generally and broadly on this Bill without going to specific provisions. I would, however, say this, we are coming of age. This is because the incidents I have enumerated, either of the old world or of as recently as in the Kingdom of Lesotho, have happened in Kenya in many different ways. I remember of a case of a Returning Officer in a constituency in Trans Nzoia. He counted the votes properly and everybody, including the members of the public, saw who had won and who had lost, but he went ahead and gave the votes for the winning candidate to the loser and those for the losing candidate to the winner. When there was protest, he used the police and told those who were there that they could go to the High Court and it would resolve the matter. So, there was a level of impunity over the years. Not that we have had no proper elections in the past, but there have been incidents which have required of us to come up with a law to ensure that we conduct free and popular elections. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, before coming to the issue of the electoral body itself, unless we as leaders are committed to free and fair elections these Bills that we are passing may be of no use. What has happened in the Ivory Coast shows quite clearly that without a leadership which is committed to democracy, passing laws itself is not sufficient. It is the leadership itself which must be committed to integrity and values of democracy. Therefore, I tell those who sit here that the buck stops with us. We are the people who are designing this Bill, we are the ones who are going to enact the Bill and we are the people who are going to provide leadership to ensure that democracy works in this country. Any imagination that the electoral body, by itself, will be sufficient to ensure that there is a free and fair election, will not work.sufficient. As a lawyer, I have taken part in many election petitions and I think my friend there, Mr. Okemo, who I appeared for in an election petition--- You know, there are some people who believe that election is war by other means; that you must fight elections unto death; that you must fight elections to the finish. That should not be the case. I, therefore, plead that we, as leaders, have this change of mind that this is a contest meant to determine the appropriate leadership in any given country, and now that there are degrees of accountability."
}