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{
    "id": 650957,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/650957/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 251,
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    "content": "Senate passes a Bill, the National Assembly ignores it. In this matter, the Bill did not get a Seconder in the National Assembly. By making matters worse, a Bill comes to Senate from the National Assembly with the same subject. I do not know what the National Assembly expects of their Bill passing through Senate when they have rejected our Bill. This trend needs to be stopped because the Constitution requires the two Houses to cooperate in matters of legislation. We need to have an atmosphere of cooperation and not competition which may prevent many Bills from being enacted. In this particular one, I support it because it affects a particular aspect of political parties which is the threshold to get funding from the Political Parties Fund. It talks about reducing the threshold in terms of the national votes. A party should have at least 3 per cent of the national vote. That opens the bracket for more parties to qualify. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, Part (c) of the Bill ensures that the parties have representation at all levels from Parliament to the county assemblies. It should not be a party in one corner which gets 3 per cent but does not have wider representation. I support the amendments and I hope the mediated version is approved in the National Assembly. The political parties must have an agenda. It is good to have parties which represent ideals and issues. Therefore, the funding will enable them to grow and will not depend on private individuals. However, if the party appeals to the public for support, it can get assistance in order to grow its ideals without relying on individuals who may one day pull out their funding. This is the right way to go in order to allow parties to grow. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, like Sen. Mutula Kilonzo Jnr. Said, the pastoralists met and felt it is time to have a party which will champion the issues affecting the pastoralist communities. For a long time, we have felt that the Government has concentrated on developing what I call “high potential areas”. The Sessional Paper No. 10 of 1965 talked about prioritising development in high potential areas so that as a trickle-down effect, the low potential areas may develop. We thought that was the cause of marginalisation of some parts of our country. It is assumed that they are low potential areas because the thinking is agricultural. We still think as leaders of these communities that we need a party to champion our rights and mainstream the issues affecting our people. The way other sectors in agriculture have boards dealing with coffee, tea, among others, there must be a similar policy targeting improvement of livestock sector especially in the arid areas. What we have currently deals with ranches only. Therefore, we need a party because of the wider representation of pastoralists. We can meet the threshold and our party can grow. I support the amendments, and I hope it will be supported by all the other Members."
}