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{
    "id": 636668,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/636668/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 445,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. Ng’ongo",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 110,
        "legal_name": "John Mbadi Ng'ong'o",
        "slug": "john-mbadi"
    },
    "content": "We have seen chaos in the management of political parties both by the political party teams that are managing them, of which I am one of them and also the membership who do not believe in them. I have looked at the amendment on allowing the merger of political parties and I agree with those amendments. If political parties decide to merge, there should be a procedure for merging. However, if a member does not want or is not interested in joining the merged political outfit and that Member is holding a position, then he should be at liberty to join another political formation or remain an independent member. This is because, Kenya is a democracy and you cannot force a member, when he or she offered him or herself for election to a particular political party. Those who elected that Member elected him or her on the basis of that political party. However, when you decide to go to another formation, you do not have to force that member to follow you to that formation. I am talking about the positives in these amendments. The other positive thing that I have seen which is of interest is the issue of mainstreaming the special interest groups in the Political Parties Act. The gender of women, the marginalised community, the youth and those living with disabilities is important. I want to add that we need to sanction those political parties that cannot respect inclusivity or do not want to include the marginalised members of our society in the management of political party affairs. There is also need to have law in place to make it mandatory that those political parties will not exist. That takes me to the respect that we give to the laws that we pass in this Parliament as a country and whether we put people in offices who are ready to follow the law and implement it. Whether the Registrar we have today is acting does not make any difference in my view. She is occupying that position and she is required by law to follow the Political Parties Act and any other relevant law in discharging her duties. What we see is a Registrar who has decided to be hands-off: A Registrar who has allowed chaos in the political party management. The law is very clear on how one would be conceived or construed to have resigned from a political party. It is very clear that if you propagate or support the activities of another political party that is in competition with the political party that sponsored you to a political office, the law requires that you do not continue membership of that political party. He should be deregistered and, therefore, should leave his political position. Above that, you are coning the electorate because when I offered myself to be a Member of Parliament for Suba, the people of Suba elected me on the basis that I was a Member of ODM, that I believed in the ideals and polices of ODM and they identified with the ODM Party. When I come to Parliament and without any consultation and that consultation can only be confirmed through either a referendum or an election and I start supporting another political party, what in effect I am doing is to con the people who voted for me. This is because those people do not believe or at least there is no evidence that they believe in the political parties whose interest I am championing."
}