Entry Instance

HTTP 200 OK
Allow: GET, PUT, PATCH, DELETE, HEAD, OPTIONS
Content-Type: application/json
Vary: Accept

{
    "id": 670715,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/670715/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 316,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. Kaluma",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 1565,
        "legal_name": "George Peter Opondo Kaluma",
        "slug": "george-peter-opondo-kaluma"
    },
    "content": "Thank you so much, Hon. Deputy Speaker. A good election is good for everybody in the country, whether you are part of CORD, the Jubilee Coalition or an independent candidate. The lessons we have learnt as a country about bad elections affect everybody. We have a long history, including the 2007/2008 post-election violence. A very good team of leaders who are, first, representatives of the people but also, serving as Members of Parliament have been assembled to do this work. Let me congratulate them. I may be casting aspersions, but I do not believe that there could be any better team than this. As I congratulate them, let me tell them that they are carrying the burden of the whole country. Never again shall we move to the edge of a precipice because of elections. We want an election in the country in which the loser acknowledges the winner and they walk as brothers and sisters as we move forward. I am happy with the terms of reference of this body. Initially, the thinking was that we are only dealing with Commissioners. We are now talking about a total and complete overhaul of our electoral systems, laws and process. This team should go forth remembering that we should not have gone to the levels that we went. It was not necessary. For once, let me thank His Excellency the President for deeming it fit, as the Head of State, to realise that this is a matter that requires bipartisan engagement and equality of voice. That is what we ought to have done early to avoid the situation we saw where a child taking milk in his mother’s house suffers a one- inch bullet in his body not knowing what the nation is agitating for. We have gone through a history of electoral reforms. This team should move forward and come up with a template. It is not the time to be a Luo, Somali or Kikuyu supremacist. The time for Kenyan extremists is not now. Let us talk of how we can conduct good elections to give us the best leaders in this country without the challenges we have been talking about. Due to scarcity of time, I support the Motion."
}