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{
    "id": 690877,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/690877/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 198,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. (Dr.) Nyikal",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 434,
        "legal_name": "James Nyikal",
        "slug": "james-nyikal"
    },
    "content": "Thank you, Hon. Speaker. I want to appreciate Members for the good work they have done during this Session. Together with your Panel, you have also done a very good work. Hon. Members have enumerated important Bills that we have passed during this Session. The two Bills we have passed this afternoon and the process we have gone through are the most important. I appreciate that we took a bipartisan approach and that there was a lot of give and take both at party level and individual level. I know there was a lot of give on the ways of principles, philosophies and believes. In the interest of the country, recognition and respect for leadership, this had to go. These two Bills we have passed today are the main instruments for the implementation of the Joint Select Committee Report. It is a Report that came as a result of a bipartisan approach during a period in our country when we really had unrest. We had instability and people died. We came as Kenyans, leaders and put the Committee in place. We had no option but to implement them. May I ask those who these Bills will give the responsibility of implementing the decisions that have been made to really appreciate the background of this? The selection panel that will be put in place, the commissioners that will be put in place, the officers in the secretariat that will be put in place and the institutions that may be picked to look at issues like audit; if they do not do their work with this thing in mind, they will let this country down. There is so much to be done. We are talking of the nine steps. If those steps are not logistically and structurally adhered to in a disciplined manner, the work we would have done will come to nil. We really do not have much time until the elections next year. We must do that. Hon. Speaker, about party-hopping, what has basically happened is we have been asked to make a decision three months earlier. That is all. That is the summary of it. You make a decision whether you are going to be in a party or independent three months earlier. Choose which party you want. That is basically the issue that has come. I think this decision has also given parties, particularly party leadership the opportunity and obligation to make sure that we have parties that are well organised and can do proper nominations; whether they will use the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) or not. That is because the real basis of eliminating party-hoping is well organised and fair nominations. If we do that, we will go a long way in having strong parties. May I take this opportunity to comment a little bit on the issue of corruption in this country? As we were going into recess we have no head of the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC). He has resigned. This is just the last one in a list of many that have come in a fairly close sequence. As a country, we must ask ourselves what is happening at EACC. Is it the people that we pick or the organisation itself? If you are a farmer and your cow comes back sick every time you take it to the field, you must start thinking of what is happening in the field. We really must ask; is it not the EACC that we should look at and probably disband it? A lot of money is being spent but it can do nothing because it cannot retain leadership. The country has to look at itself. Finally is the issue of the two-thirds gender rule. I will call it an error that was done in the Constitution because we put a mathematical figure to be achieved through an electoral process. I have been involved in this since 2012 in Cabinet committees, technical committees ( Off-record) ."
}