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{
    "id": 670043,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/670043/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 227,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. (Eng.) Gumbo",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 24,
        "legal_name": "Nicholas Gumbo",
        "slug": "nicholas-gumbo"
    },
    "content": "Thank you, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker for giving me the opportunity to contribute to the Election Laws (Amendment) Bill. To a large extent, this Bill contains very useful provisions which will make our elections better. I have said it before that having good laws and living by them is a different thing. The problem we have had in our county for a long time has never been the absence of laws but the flagrant disregard of the many laws we have passed. As a lawyer, I am sure you are aware that sometimes the more laws a society has, the more perverse and nobile its inhabitants become. We should be good people for us to move forward. Elections remain a matter of life and death in this country. Those who seek elective positions are just a miniscule percentage of the population of this country. Therefore, it is a pity to see disruption that our actions as the political class cause in our society from time to time. I was one of the proponents of the degree requirement in the last Parliament. I still stand by that rule. This is not an easy job. Those who take their time to look at Bills will agree with me that it requires a minimum level of education. Let us not make it look like if you do not get an elective post, you are not useful in society. The transition in our county should be having a society where even those who make major contributions to our society do not necessarily have to be the political class. I was in South Africa in 2004 during their elections, and I was so impressed that the major newspapers were not talking about the person who was winning the election. The newspapers talked about the performance of the rand and the economy, and what an African National Congress (ANC) or a coalition of the opposition parties win would mean to the economy. You would not even know that there was an election. In Kenya, election period is a total fever. Everything else comes to a standstill. It has been said before that the difference between good and bad leaders is that bad leaders think about the next elections the moment an election is conducted. Good leaders think about the next generation. We should transform ourselves to that class of leaders who think about our next generations. Being a Member of Parliament (MP), a Member of the County Assembly (MCA), a governor or even a President is nothing but a temporary job. We cannot always throw our country to the edge everytime we have elections. The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor."
}