{"id":716181,"url":"http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/716181/?format=json","text_counter":13,"type":"other","speaker_name":"","speaker_title":"","speaker":null,"content":"GUIDELINES ON PROCESSING OF THE ELECTION LAWS (AMENDMENT) (NO.3) BILL (NATIONAL ASSEMBLY BILL NO.63 OF 2015 Hon. Members, you will recall that at the end of the morning sitting today, I directed, with the leave of the House, that we will continue with the debate on the Second Reading of the Election Laws (Amendment) (No.3) Bill (National Assembly Bill No.63 of 2015) this afternoon. It is just as well that the Report has been tabled and during this Second Reading, we will be able to use that opportunity to allow the Chairperson, during his contribution on the Second Reading, to shed light on what the Report contains. The Report is now available to every Member. So, we will have plenty of time before the time for the Third Reading where the input will impact on the Bill. This is a matter that we discussed quite at length in the morning and the position still remains the same. What you need is time. The Report is now available and as Members continue to contribute, you will be able to look at the Report yourself. Hon. Senators, you also recall that part of the reason why we referred this matter to the Committees of the House was to allow for public participation as well as inform the debate through the Report of the said Committees. I, therefore, thank the two Committees that facilitated the public participation on behalf of the Senate - the Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights and the Committee on Information and Technology - for the long sittings that they held since this matter was referred to them. In fact, I know for a fact, a number of Members, as Sen. Mutula Kilonzo Jnr. said in the morning, part of the reason one Motion was being brought could be because Members served very well and maybe they lacked sleep. Allow me to also thank Members of the House for the sobriety on the matters before the House. I wish to encourage you to pursue that path. As Wole Soyinka says, a tiger does not proclaim its tigritude; it pounces. In other words, a tiger does not stand in the forest and say: “I am a tiger.” Kenya already knows the Senators. When you pass where the tiger has walked before, you see the skeleton and then you know that some tigritude has been emanated there. Finally, as we embark on the Report before us, I want us to bear in mind our role as representatives of the people, adhere to the rules of debate that bind all of us; that this is going to the defining moment of this debate this afternoon and we conclude this Bill. In the words of Edmund Burke in his Speech to the electors of Bristol, he said: “Parliament is not a congress of ambassadors from different and hostile interests, which interest each must maintain as an agent and an advocate against other agents and other agents and other advocates. Parliament is a deliberative assembly of one nation with one interest; that of the whole where not local purposes or local prejudices ought to guide but the general good resulting from the general reason of the whole”. I thank you. 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"}