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{
    "id": 636534,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/636534/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 311,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. Kang’ata",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 1826,
        "legal_name": "Irungu Kang'ata",
        "slug": "irungu-kangata"
    },
    "content": "I stand to second and support this Political Parties (Amendment) Bill 2016. It is a very good Bill which has new features. It is going to alter the political landscape and the way we manage political parties in this country. One of the reasons I support this Bill is this: For the first time in the history of this country, we have provided the mechanism of merging political parties. We know several political parties that have merged. However, they have done that in a very informal manner. A good example is the merger of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and Kenya African National Union (KANU) in 1999. It was quite informal. It was being driven by two party leaders. Again, the fallout was not clear and not legally provided for. Therefore, we have new clauses which are clearly going to indicate the procedure of merging political parties. I belong to the school of thought that Kenya has very many political parties which do not add much value to this country. It makes sense for a growing democracy to have fewer and fewer parties so that Kenyans can have a better choice of political ideas as opposed to a litany of political parties whose manifestos tend to be almost identical. This law has proposed a mechanism of merging political parties. To me, that is progress and one of the reason we should support this Bill. Secondly, we have gender mainstreaming. We have provided provisions that are going to compel political parties to include young people and people with disabilities into their organs. For instance, we have the nomination list, the governing councils and membership. Several clauses of this Bill have proposed to compel those political parties to include women, the youth, people with disabilities and marginalised communities in this country. To that extent, this Bill is very progressive and we need to support it. The third point which is also a very crucial aspect to this law relates to the Political Parties Dispute Tribunal. Clause 18 of this Bill proposed to amend Section 39 of the principal law to expand the membership of Political Parties Dispute Tribunal from five to seven. What is the advantage of this proposal? Presently, we only have five members in that tribunal. When you look at what happened in the last elections, there were so many suits which were taken before that tribunal. Members challenged the nominal lists and their exclusion from nomination. When you have only five members handling disputes of so many political parties, then that court was not giving justice to Kenyans. There are so many litigants who sought services from that tribunal. We, therefore, as a Committee, propose to have seven members. Why? That means we can have several benches. One may be sitting in Nairobi and another in Kisumu. That way, we shall have devolved justice. To that extent, we are going to reduce and mitigate the backlogs and cure the many capacity issues which currently behoove the tribunal. We also propose to amend Clause 20. It proposes to amend Section 41 of the principal Act by providing that the Chief Justice, in consultation with the tribunal, can make regulations for the determination of disputes arising out of this law. Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, if you have a case before the tribunal, you cannot know how you are going--- 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."
}