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{
    "id": 731441,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/731441/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 423,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. Okoth",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 12482,
        "legal_name": "Kenneth Odhiambo Okoth",
        "slug": "kenneth-odhiambo-okoth"
    },
    "content": "When I think about the election regulations and the job of IEBC coming up here, I do not want to go into the specifics and the details. We had a thorough debate on the details of those at a Committee Stage with the proposed amendments, and you saw the push and pull. What strikes me philosophically is our commitment to learn as a country. Do we learn from our own history, or even the very recent history? The Kriegler Commission Report told us that to have a credible election which people will have a sense of trust and confidence in, we must make sure that we have our election rules set up two years before the elections. Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, we are at a space where we are looking at very few weeks - less than two quarters or less than six months - for the elections to happen. These are regulations, guidelines and rules of the game that should have been set very early, but here we are. We find ourselves at the last minute with the IEBC asking the House and the Committees to change some deadlines, with tenders being offered under questionable circumstances, with technology that is a critical component of elections being purchased without possible scrutiny and building the confidence. We are looking at the elections that, as much as we want to be hopeful beyond the individuals who will run the elections, there will still be a lot of questions. I can see our court system will have a lot of work to do with the challenges that are coming up and after those elections. This is about the possible legitimacy based on how the process has gone. Maybe it is time. We have not figured it out yet, but as we move to future elections after this one, we should go into an election after we have set the rules. In two financial years, the funding is in place and the tendering and purchase of available technology should be done. A second key issue that bothers me as we approach these elections is the fact that we still have not looked at a the constitutional principle on the two-thirds gender rule as a House and committed to passing a formula one way or another. There have been critical debates about this. Should the size of the House be reduced? Are Kenyans overrepresented? Is the wage bill too 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."
}