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{
    "id": 670079,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/670079/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 263,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. (Ms.) Ng'etich",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 511,
        "legal_name": "Cecilia Chelangat Ngetich",
        "slug": "cecilia-chelangat-ngetich"
    },
    "content": "Thank you, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker for this opportunity to also comment on the Election Laws (Amendment) (No.3) Bill of 2015. From the outset, I support this Bill with reservations in one or two clauses. I support Clause 4 that increases the number of days from 60 to 90 within which the Commission must open the register for inspection. This will increase transparency that is required for the electoral process. We have heard people complain that people who have passed on continue to remain in the register and, therefore, this is open for abuse. The inspection of the register should be at the polling centre where voters know each other. It should be inspected at the respective polling centres. Secondly, Clause 5 talks about increasing the number of days for the determination of intra-party disputes arising from political party nominations from 45 to 90 days. This is good because it gives room for disputes that may arise to be sorted out before the register is closed. We have seen this before especially cases where women have won nominations and are denied certificates. Even men win nominations, but because they are not the favourites of certain party officials, they are denied certificates. In fact, if we are serious about conducting free and fair nominations, it would be good if we allow the IEBC to be in charge of nominations. You will agree with me that in certain stronghold areas, nomination is the election. Once you win nominations, you are sure you are going to win in the general elections. I have also heard my constituents saying that the line-up is known. So, money that is given to political parties and which is paid by candidates for nominations should be used for doing professional exercise of printing nomination papers and ballot boxes as opposed to using exercise books and buckets as ballot boxes. On the clause that requires public servants to resign one year before elections if they want to seek for an electoral office, I would propose an amendment. One year before the election is just like saying that you want to avoid competition. Let us maintain it at six months. That is fair. If it is about the fear of public officers using public resources, that provision alone may not stem it because there are other people who may have amassed wealth by the time they decide they are going for elections. There is the debate about minimum educational qualification. Indeed, any professional job will always require a minimum qualification. So, that debate is neither here nor there. An amendment can be made to this provision. The biggest reservation that I have is on the issue of MCAs who are in charge of appropriating huge resources. Where you have an MCA who has not been to any classroom, honestly, that is disservice to the people he or she is representing. I have heard reports from certain county assemblies that because MCAs do not understand what was going on in the county assemblies when English and Kiswahili are used, they were proposing to bring a Bill to allow them to use local languages. For that reason, we must have a minimum qualification, otherwise, not only will those counties suffer, but the country will also suffer because poverty will continue due to poor planning and poor appropriation of resources because of lack of knowledge. This may look discriminative. I represent a marginalised group where women are the majority and efforts have been made to encourage the girl-child to go to school. We should have made some gains now. We should not always put ourselves down to say 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."
}