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{
    "id": 690658,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/690658/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 246,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. (Dr.) Shaban",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 139,
        "legal_name": "Naomi Namsi Shaban",
        "slug": "naomi-shaban"
    },
    "content": "Thank you, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker. As I reply, I want to thank all the Members for all the support and contributions they have made. Even the Members who are planning to bring amendments are doing so within the mandate they have been given in this House. I want to take this opportunity in also thanking the Joint Select Committee for the work that was put in. It was not an easy fete. Even when we came up with the decision of putting all the election offences that were scattered all over in one place, it is because a lot of work had gone into it. The Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) also said he was having a very difficult time because even when he knows there are offences which have been committed, he would not know what to do because it was not being addressed in the laws of Kenya. With the passage of this law, it will now be possible for the DPP to prosecute election offences in a more organised manner. He can even come in on issues which have been impossible in the past. The Judiciary should also now take very serious steps in punishing offenders. This is because in the last Petitions, they chose to be silent on the issue of commission officials, most of the Returning Officers who really misbehaved in the last elections. None of them was really punished. Instead, the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission was punished on their behalf. That will not make anybody responsible at the constituency or county level. Returning Officers were able to just get away with some of the naughty things they did. Hon. Peris Tobiko talked about these sentences and the fines which have been put there as being too much. I think she should not be worried because those are the maximum levels that any judgement can go to. There are minimum levels. It is actually very specific on not exceeding the sentences and the punishments which have been put there. I know Members have been very keen on us having a new commission and also for us, as we are moving on to next year’s general election, Members are so keen to make sure that some of the obvious things which were going wrong should be corrected for us to have a fair and level paying ground. I beg to reply."
}