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    "id": 688200,
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    "content": "what is happening in other jurisdictions and found out that this could still be covered under the general law of bribery in cases where they are found to be indeed serious. This is because bribery is still an offence under the laws of Kenya. Therefore, in regard to election offences, we repealed those provisions that related to election offences of treating and transportation of voters. We also said that if one has to be prosecuted for election offences, that prosecution must be undertaken within 24 months. This is because you may commit an offence today and somebody waits until the ninth or tenth year when you are about to go for an election campaign for them to drag and arraign you in court. This could happen when some of the witnesses have died and some of the materials are unavailable. We, therefore, said election offences must be undertaken within a period of 24 months. In England, they must be undertaken within a period of 12 months. There are some issues that were presented to us by the judges in relation to the jurisdiction of the election courts. We commend the judiciary because we were addressed by Judges from the Supreme Court, the Court of Appeal, the High Court and even the Magistracy. The general view was that the proper forum for election offences should be the criminal court and not an election court because that is where a person so charged would have the normal protections under the criminal law and more particularly Article 50 of the Constitution. Finally, on the issue of election offences, we decided as guided by some of the presentations we received from the office of the Attorney General, the office of the DPP and the courts themselves, that we needed a stand-alone statute that made provisions for election offences instead of all of them being consolidated into an Election Act. I want to come to Thematic Area Nos.3 and 4. I am sure the Members of the Committee who are here and my Co-Chair will address the Senate on some of the areas if I do not cover them. On the issue of registers, we have come up with a recommendation that the law should define properly what a register of voters is. This is because over the past years, we found a situation where there were several registers or several components of registers. People who are familiar with previous election disputes know that there have been references to the green book and even the black book. Under the proposals, there would be one register of voters. Part of the problem of the legislation as it stands in the definition or interpretation clauses of the current Act and the provisions as contained in the Act is the use of the word “principal register.” It was then assumed that if you have a principal register then there would be so many other registers. We have addressed that and ensured that there will only be one register. The Bill would also require determination and verification of lawful voters in the register because of the many complaints that have been put forward. This is not just in relation to the last general elections, but it goes as far back as the elections in 2007 and even before. The Registrar of Persons who came before us said that between them they had found out that there were cases of double registration involving nearly 100,000 The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposes only. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor, Senate."
}