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{
    "id": 748725,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/748725/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 151,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. Dido",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 2749,
        "legal_name": "Col (Rtd) Ali Rasso Dido",
        "slug": "col-rtd-ali-rasso-dido"
    },
    "content": "Thank you very much, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker. I looked at this Report and the first question that I asked myself is whether a ruling of the EACJ can provide a bedrock on how candidates to EALA can be nominated. The law must cut across or fit all. If we allow the law to be fleeting and applied selectively, then we will not be doing justice in this House. The EALA is the legislative arm of the EAC. It is a very important institution for the partner States of the EAC. It provides the democratic representation of the people of the six States with the addition of Southern Sudan. Parties are getting slots on a pro rata basis. It means the majority party in the Houses of Parliament should send more Members to EALA. On that one, there is no contestation. The discussion is about how parties select and bring forth names to this House for final confirmation. This House acts as the electoral college of the Republic of Kenya. When parties decide to bring forth names of those they feel should be candidates to EALA, this House will be turned into a rubber stamp. We must make a decision on that. If that is not the case, parties must go on record to clarify what the best practice should be. The nine individuals we are supposed to elect here will be the Kenyan delegation to EALA. They are expected to represent Kenya and not the parties they are affiliated to. So, this issue must be approached in a bipartisan manner. The way we are addressing it now in terms of what parties must do, we are likely to send a divided team to EALA. I sit on the Departmental Committee of Defense and Foreign Relations and also the Committee on Regional Integration and I know the value of EALA. I know the need to send the best to EALA. The way parties pick their best is up to them, but the final die must be cast by this House. For that reason, if we say that it is either our way or the highway, as the other side seems to say, then it does not send a very good signal. Rule 6(3) clearly requires political parties to nominate thrice the number of candidates as the party slot. Indeed, that is the law. If we are going to amend it here and in this House, then let it be so. However, if we want to side step the law because it does not suit us at that moment, that it not just. I have heard even good lawyers in this House saying that for this particular case, because of tyranny of numbers, we should side step the law. We are not doing the right thing."
}