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"speaker_name": "Hon. Kubai Iringo",
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"legal_name": "Cyprian Kubai Iringo",
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"content": "Thank you, Hon. Deputy Speaker. This Motion should have come earlier. I was cautioning myself as I sat here, but at a certain point you clarified that maybe this Motion is not targeting the current exercise, but it is futuristic, even though the Mover of the Motion felt that the futuristic should have held its horses until we go through this exercise. When you go out there, people are thinking that we are here to formulate ways of persuading them to go and register as voters. Therefore, they will sit and wait for the outcome of this Motion, so that we can go and implement it. Most of our electorates, given their level of understanding, are waiting for handouts or other persuasive measures, which we would like to put in place. Hon. Deputy Speaker, the voter registration and national ID issuance exercises have been so polarised in this country. Most of the people who need to get the cards are shying away from the offices where the services are given. At the offices of the National Registration Bureau where national IDs are issued, officers who are supposed to issue IDs to people are waiting to be given money, so that they can offer the service. The people, who expect to be registered without any fees because the system allows that we should not pay anything, go back wondering why they should pay to get voters cards. Equally, the bureaucracy involved in getting this document is so cumbersome that people find it better to engage in things which can earn them a living instead of sitting at one place waiting for voters cards or an ID card, which they know they will not get by the end of the day. They also know that if they go back to the registration centres the following day, somebody will ask them for money. That bureaucracy should be removed. I thought Huduma Centres were aimed at removing that bureaucracy, but I do not see them doing that. Even if you go to any Huduma Centre, you find the same kind of queues. Therefore, I propose that we embrace a system where if you apply for an ID card, you get all the other documents that are required by law, including a passport, driving licence, voters card, National Hospital Insurance Fund (NHIF) card and any other statutory document. All of them should be factored inside one document, so that you do not find yourself having to queue in one office after another. I have a very practical case in mind. My NG-CDF vehicle was arrested in Meru by the Police Government Vehicle Check Unit because the work ticket did not indicate where the vehicle was going. Unfortunately, the driver had not indicated. They gave him eight charges on a piece of paper. He was told to go to the Traffic Police Headquarters on Thika Road to get the charges computed. From there, he would go to Harambee House Annex to pay for the charges. After that, he would go back to the Traffic Police Headquarters on Thika Road to submit the receipt for it to be mailed to the Meru Police Government Vehicle Check Unit for the vehicle to be released. What is all this for? That can be done upfront, so that the vehicle is released for the driver to continue with his journey. We create our own problems. We, the leaders who are elected by the citizens and are persuading the people to register as voters should know that people expect service delivery. They expect to reap from their voting. Instead, leaders try to get the people to vote for them. You have not been working, but you are again trying to persuade them to vote for you. In the process, you will use money which was supposed to do development work. At the end of the day, the country will not move forward. We create our own problems and when we get stuck, we start going back explaining how we could go about correcting this situation. Instead of being proactive, we are trying to react to the consequences of our own undoing. I do not support this Motion. We are just wasting our time with this one. Let us go and do the right thing to make our people vote for us. They will be persuaded by your actions to go for The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor."
}