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{
    "id": 638985,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/638985/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 234,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. Oyugi",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 444,
        "legal_name": "Augostinho Neto Oyugi",
        "slug": "augostinho-neto-oyugi"
    },
    "content": "affirmative action principle will go on forever. It puts a time limit. The sunset clause makes it attractive. The second thing I would like to point out is the fact that no person running on the affirmative action seats shall do so for two terms. That means once you have run for those seats for the first time, it forces you to have ambition. If you did not have ambition, this seat is going to be the wrong seat for you to run to. The other provision I would like to speak to – and it is another attractive provision - is the extent that there will be need, should Parliament find it, to extend this legislation for a term of another ten years. That provision is going to be subject to the two-thirds principle. Two-thirds of the House must vote for that provision. The Bill is attractive. All of it is going to be given effect after the election. What that means is that women are going to have an equal chance to compete. That is the reason I was paying tribute to the ladies who have been elected on a single constituency seat. First, you must compete. Let us see what you are made of. Let us see you run and win for office. That is going to diminish the number of women who get nominated. The nomination provision is also very good. The list for people who should be nominated ought to be submitted long before the election so that we do not have people tampering with nomination lists or looking for favours. I am sure the Elections Act will be made in a manner that it is handed in before the elections. That way, it is attractive that people who want to compete can do so out of their own volition. Our Constitution makes the affirmative action principles important and compulsory. The best way would have been to have an electoral system that would have given us proportional representation; an election principle put in the Constitution where we would have the numbers we want for people with disability, special minorities and women. Be that as it may, the electoral principle that we have is to pass the post first. That is not very attractive. It makes competition for women very difficult. That is the reason this provision is good. It is going to give our women a chance to fairly compete and make them very stable. Lastly and because I know there is a lot of attraction on this seat, I would like to explain to my Members of Parliament that failure to pass this constitutional provision has a penalty. Should we not be able to pass this amendment Bill, any person can go to court for the dissolution of this Parliament. We might be in the tail-end of this Parliament, but the Constitution clearly says that even the subsequent Parliaments will be held unconstitutional to such an extent and time that we must attain the two-thirds gender principle. That is why I was pleading with my colleagues in this 11th Parliament that we do whatever we can. Let us be the House that makes history by ensuring that apart from the Protection Against Domestic Violence Bill, the two-thirds gender principle that has been on the cards for many years now allows the women of this House to stand tall and know that their male and female colleagues stood up with them to ensure that the principle as it is in Article 27(8) of the Constitution was realised by this Parliament. I can promise you that we who are of the Parliamentary Caucus on Human Rights shall mobilise to ensure that whatever is within our means, our lobbying powers and our friends are brought to the House on the day of the vote to ensure this Bill sees light of day. With those many remarks, I support. Thank you."
}