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{
    "id": 576148,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/576148/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 23,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. Ochieng",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 2955,
        "legal_name": "David Ouma Ochieng'",
        "slug": "david-ouma-ochieng"
    },
    "content": "The process of preparing this Bill started in January last year. This was done because I believe that most of the amendments that relate to the 2017 elections should be done early enough. In my opinion, they should be dispensed with by the end of this year. The issue of elections’ date in this country is neither new nor has it had a good history. Elections normally provide a good chance for renewal for the country. It provides a chance for the public - the electorate - to renew the mandate of leaders and probably make changes where they thought leaders fell short. Elections are also very important. Where elections’ dates are clear, they promote predictability and certainty in terms of the way we are going to do our politics. Certainty of elections’ dates further promotes economic and political stability. It helps those who plan to contest. Those who aspire to political office, those of us in Parliament today who aspire to run again and those of us who plan to retire are able to plan how to do this on time and do it at their own time. As you would know, the history of elections’ dates in this country has been chequered. For a long time, it used to be that the President would decide when the election could be held. It used to be the trump card - the wild card - that the President held against anybody else in the country because it was the President to decide when elections were to be done. That is why in 2010 when we were enacting a new Constitution, one of the things in the minds of Kenyans was to remove the power of deciding when elections are to be held from one individual and put it in the Constitution. It is also not very easy for Parliament to change the date of the second Tuesday of August in the election year, which is after every five years. The Bill we are discussing this morning is not new; it was first brought before Parliament in 2011 by the late distinguished Hon. Mutula Kilonzo, the then Member of Parliament for Mbooni – may the Lord rest his soul in peace. The Bill as drafted by Hon. Mutula Kilonzo is the Bill we are discussing today; I did not change a comma or a full stop in it. It proposes that elections be done on the third Monday of December. This Bill went through all the processes, including the Cabinet and public hearings. Were it not for the intervention of the courts, we would not be here today discussing this Bill because it would have passed that time. When the Bill was pending before the National Assembly, the courts decided that elections would be done in March 2013. So, the Bill was rendered nugatory. It will also be important to note that when this matter arose in court the court did not provide a very firm opinion on whether they thought that this should be a matter for the courts to decide. The proposal I am making in this Bill is to move the date of the general election from the second Tuesday of August to the third Monday of December in the election year. The amendments affect the following Articles of the Constitution. Article 101(1) of the Constitution The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor."
}