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{
    "id": 687106,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/687106/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 283,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. (Dr.) Oginga",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 194,
        "legal_name": "Oburu Ngona Odinga",
        "slug": "oburu-odinga"
    },
    "content": "Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, I also commend the Joint Select Committee for approving this electronic voting system and electronic transmission of results. I hear people talking about manual voting and electronic voting running side by side. This is very dangerous. Last time, during the voting or election, all the electronic voting machines or, BVRs failed. They were not working. It is very surprising that a day or two later, all of them were okay. They were working. Introducing the manual voting system is a sure way of going to rig elections again. There is another item I want to talk about on the IEBC. People are saying that this Report has exonerated the commissioners of the IEBC. I am very surprised that these people did it. There is evidence people who gave bribes to these people in Great Britain are suffering and languishing in jails there. The evidence which was used and the list of people mentioned were given to Kenya. Those people are languishing in jail and yet we still say here in Parliament that these commissioners are blameless and very innocent. I think there are some commissioners who are very innocent because not all of them are guilty. However, to give them a clean bill of health that all of them are healthy, good and not culpable is not right. On the vetting of the register, electronic vetting of the voter register by people going physically to check whether their names are there or not will eliminate ghost voters who normally vote when they are in their coffins or graves. Those people will not wake up again to vote as it has happened before. I wish the Committee which was discussing these issues could have also talked about using identity cards as voter’s cards. It happens in very many countries all over the world that your identification document also becomes your voting card. That is so, so that we do not go through all this hustle of getting an identity card and then wait forever to confirm that you are in the voters’ register. In future, I hope this Parliament will discuss the issue of using identity cards as voting cards so that we do not go through all these hustles of two registers. Kenyans who have attained the age of 18 are qualified to vote. There is no reason why they should be subjected to another long process of looking for voters’ cards when they are already registered as Kenyans. I have already mentioned that transmission of election results electronically should not be compromised by or mixed with manual transmission. I want to end by saying that I hope what has been recommended will be implemented to the letter. That is so, so that those who are used to stealing elections will not be tempted to fail the electronic machines on the voting day when there is nothing wrong with those machines. They just become out of order artificially and then they are all in order the next day. With those few remarks, I support the Report. Thank you."
}