{"id":716212,"url":"http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/716212/?format=json","text_counter":44,"type":"other","speaker_name":"","speaker_title":"","speaker":null,"content":"The stakeholders were quite many. We also had the Computer Society of Kenya, the Kenya National Chamber of Commerce and the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights which is under the Constitution. As chairman, I took very seriously the views of that commission which is entrusted by the Constitution to oversee laws and regulations in this area, including the right to vote and stand for any elective political position. We took their views quite seriously. Therefore, our position at the beginning was that we adopt a bipartisan approach. I can assure you that the discussions in the Committees were very robust. We were very frank. All points of view were taken on board. We did not curtail any debate in the course of the discussions. However, as is in the nature of any democratic process, you cannot discuss issues ad infinitum . At the end of the day, you must cast the vote. Hence, this report that I am presenting to the House today, unfortunately – I say unfortunately because the co-chair has tried a bit to hammer out an agreement which we thought addressed the mischief which many people made submissions regarding these clauses. If possible, we wanted to achieve a consensus which addresses that mischief; but unfortunately we were unable to hammer an agreement. Therefore, it had to come to voting. When we voted, 10 Members voted for the amendments as they are and six Members voted against the amendments. Those six Members decided to append the Minority report which is attached to this report. According to the Standing Orders, the Minority or any Member has a right to attach his or her views to the report which has been adopted by the Committee. So, the Committee adopted this report through a vote of 10 against six. Unfortunately, the voting was along party lines. I would have preferred a voting to have been along ideas, concepts and so on so that some in CORD vote for one side and some also in Jubilee vote for the same so that we come up with – CORD includes FORD Kenya, Wiper Party of Kenya and ODM. In other words, I would have liked the vote to take place but in a way more focused on the pros and cons of the ideas that had been meted out. That was not to be. It was along party lines. Mr. Speaker, Sir, we addressed each and every proposed sub amendment. We went Clause by Clause. We were briefed by the legal counsel who had gone through this report."}