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{
    "id": 662960,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/662960/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 533,
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    "speaker": null,
    "content": "do we get the luxury of having too many political parties? I guess that is the freedom given in the Constitution. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, more important is the management of parties by the structures of the State. Clause 8(a) of this Bill states that:- “A political party may merge with another political party by- (a) forming a new political party; or (b) by merging into an already registered political party.” As I said, this is collapsing small parties and others into the fold of The National Alliance (TNA) Party and United Republican Party (URP). It is alright and up to them to do what they want. Clause 7 states that:- “Section 9 of the Principal Act is amended by inserting the following new sub- section immediately after sub-section 1- “(1A) The Constitution or rules of every political party shall ensure that not more than two-thirds of the membership of all party organs, bodies and Committees is in aggregate are of the same gender” Sometimes we overstretch the gender issue. I agree that we need our womenfolk into our mainstream activities. I would have absolutely no difficult with the women of Kenya forming a party that champions exclusively women issues. But to condition people, sometimes, by just having some cosmetic membership in order to meet these kinds of rules--- For example, you will find a man nominating his daughter or his wife to the party so as to meet the gender rule. As I have said before, it is just like the issue of degrees. I know that we need educated people in Parliament and leadership. However, we have people who are educated, but barely look and behave so. They do things that make one wonder whether they went to school. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, I have always said that if a pastoralist group in El Molo or Turkana want to elect one of their own to represent them in this House, so be it. Parliament is a House of Representatives. It is not an alumni of universities. Even as we are looking for a more enlightened and educated leadership – we have said that the President as well as his deputy must have a university degree, although we sometimes find that the conduct is inconsistent with those qualifications. We want to have a situation where freedom of association should not be too limiting by the law. If young people of 30 years and below formed a political party and said that the membership is dependent on being 30 years and below and when you exceed that age, you have to exit, I have no problem with that. We need to give people an opportunity to grow. The Jubilee Government is playing games with the Political Parties’ Fund. We just passed a law stating that if a party has a governor, two Senators, two Members of Parliament and 25 MCAs, it is eligible for funding. That fund has a percentage in the Constitution. What we are getting are discretions at the National Treasury other than adhering to the law and that is not fair. We want the efforts of those in politics to benefit from the fund provided by the State. I want my brother, the leader of the Mbus to also get the just dues of his sweat for having a governor who is now rebelling against him."
}