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{
    "id": 692234,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/692234/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 185,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Karaba",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 232,
        "legal_name": "Daniel Dickson Karaba",
        "slug": "daniel-karaba"
    },
    "content": "Thank you, Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir. First of all, I want to congratulate you for making that good ruling and observation. Secondly, I congratulate you for being elected the Temporary Speaker for now. I hope that the rest of the process will be smooth. We are discussing a very important Bill. In other countries, the proceedings on this Bill would have been covered live and people would be commenting as we speak. As we discuss this Bill, election fever is already on and campaigns have started. If one commits some of these electoral offences, he or she should be reprimanded. However, despite talking about these offences, over the years no one has been prosecuted for the same. Therefore, it would be important if people who commit election offences are prosecuted. It should also be clarified when the time for campaigns starts and ends. Nobody should talk about elections before the appropriate time. As I speak, some choppers are flying in some of the counties with aspirants pleading with people for support. Election fever has already started. Can we stop those movements and maneuvers, so that the aspirants are told in no uncertain terms that the campaign period is yet to come? If that was to happen from the Senate, we would be seen like we are discussing matters of importance. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, I have heard and read in the newspapers that in some places some people have already been elected through ‘directed’ democracy. In those places, some clans have already nominated and ‘elected’ their people. Will we honor that as elections even when it is not held at the same time as the general election? We should follow the timetable agreed on. Right now there are people who are sure that they will not face any challenge during the election time. We should be candid so that we avoid such utterances and directions from some nomadic pastoralists so that we do not get into problems. This may lead to tribal clashes in some of those areas. This House can contain some of the tribes from engaging in clashes. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, in some areas, nominations by political parties are taken as general elections. Some of these cases are notable in Nyanza and sometimes in the Mt. Kenya Region. The moment a person gets nomination in a particular party, they will not face anybody else in the general election. Does this Bill have anything to do with the party elections, so that the party elections in Nyanza, some parts of Rift Valley and Central regions can be seen as final? This situation can be tantamount to cheating, if somebody who has been elected in the party primaries thinks that he or she has been elected in the final elections. We must be careful because we have passed another Bill prohibiting party-hopping. If party-hopping will not be allowed and someone is already disadvantaged in the party primaries, we will have unfair representation, which is not natural suffrage. We should, therefore, interpret this Bill carefully. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, results are supposed to be released within a short time. To avoid any rigging results should be released from the polling stations, so that polling---"
}