HTTP 200 OK
Allow: GET, PUT, PATCH, DELETE, HEAD, OPTIONS
Content-Type: application/json
Vary: Accept
{
"id": 650999,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/650999/?format=api",
"text_counter": 293,
"type": "other",
"speaker_name": "",
"speaker_title": "",
"speaker": null,
"content": "Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, this is a very healthy debate. If I may say, I used to be the Registrar of Political Parties in my days as the Attorney-General, when we opened the floodgate in December, 1991 and we registered parties, you will not believe that within a week, more than 100 political parties had been registered. Then I felt that they were enough but there were demonstrations outside my office. When I inquired why and talked to some people who came to the office, they asked me why I was delaying them in getting their livelihood. The livelihood came from two sources; those days it was a tradition for somebody with money to buy a political party. So, you register a political party, sit on it, at the right time during the elections, you can sell it to the highest bidder and you get money. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, most of them felt that all the registered political parties were going to get funding from the Government. So, most of them were briefcase parties, most of them had more to do with being invited by diplomats to various cocktail parties because they were leaders of political parties. As at that time, it was known who the major political parties were, but of all these parties that came up just before elections, nobody knew. Therefore, the Mediated Bill is to put an end to that and ensure that the real serious political parties are registered. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, I also take the point that was raised by Sen. M. Kajwang as a point of order. A party must have national character. Secondly, if you go further and read Article 91 (2) (a), a party should not be registered on religious, linguistic, racial, ethnic, gender and regional basis. So, what happens, for example when one is only known for farming and you register a party for the farmers of that region? Is that not a party which has a regional basis? So, a number of the proposed parties that have been suggested, although they may be noble, they come close to violating the spirit of the Constitution of having a national party that is open to any person who espouses the idea. The idea is the ideology of that particular party and not whether you are a farmer, a pastoralist or a linguist. It has to be national in character. Mr. Temporary Speaker, as I said, I used to be a Registrar of Political Parties and I also know that it has taken time for that appointment to be made. It has taken more than two years and it is a violation of the law. Part of the problems we have had as Senate, parliamentarians or civil society is, we witnessed these technical breaches of law which may not be intended but because we keep quiet on it, it becomes a habit and goes into people’s heads that they can slightly violate the law and get away with it. Time has now come when we should be strict constitutionalists. When something violates the Constitution, we should point it out and have a way of forcing that to be remedied almost immediately. It should not take more than two years to remedy an appointment like that, unless there are some major intentions as to why it is so. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, mine is to thank all those who have contributed. Sen. Mutula Kilonzo Jnr. mentioned the issue of gender. It is our duty as legislators to further enrich the political parties which may have access to these funds by putting conditions. One of the conditions that I feel must be there is the issue of gender. In many countries, gender becomes a qualification for accessing a particular percentage of those funds so that political parties are forced as it were to nominate candidates. The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposes only. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor, Senate"
}