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{
    "id": 755887,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/755887/?format=api",
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    "content": "we must ask is whether this right – the sovereign expression of the will of the Kenyan – can then be subservient to a decision that does not look at whether the will of the people when they went to the ballot was discernible, visible or clear as to what they wanted, but just looks at technicalities, stamps or watermarks. That is one thing that the Senate must deal with. Mr. Speaker, Sir, I will move further and quickly to say that not only do we want a Supreme Court that is able to uphold the Constitution, because it is Article 1 that talks about the sovereign will of the people. But we also want an electoral management body that does not also pander to the whims of political parties – that they will do what the party that speaks loudest or that causes chaos or that has the biggest press conferences wants them to do – but what the laws asks them to do. As I conclude, I would like to thank the President for speaking about what I believe in and what Jubilee stands for; what was the mantra in my campaign: ‘siasa safi.’ That though Kenyans may have great diversity in their origins, we have a common goal in destiny. I am glad that he was able to speak against hate speech and to condemn remarks from both sides of the divide. Even as we campaign in this sensitive time, we must remember that after the 17th of October, we will have one Kenya and we must keep that country together. Some of us may not have the luxury to have been elected in counties of political homogeneity where everybody is of the same opinion. For instance, in Nairobi if everybody in Jubilee voted only for Jubilee candidates; and everybody in National Super Alliance (NASA) voted only for NASA candidates, I would not be in this House. With that realization; that close to 200,000 of the votes I got were from people of different political persuasions in terms of political parties, I know that the politics that I must play must be politics that brings people together as opposed to politics that seeks to divide. I am glad that the many young people who were elected in this Parliament and the great Senators in this Parliament would be able to stand for that kind of politics. Finally, I hope that we shall have a Senate based on the words of Cicero that “politics indeed is the art of the possible, not the battleground of absolute.” That, in most cases we should be able to look across the aisle and agree; once we have been elected our work then is to serve the interest of the people. We will stand for what we believe in, in Jubilee, and we hope they stand for what they believe in. But many times we will have opportunities to close ranks and to agree for the betterment of this country; to stand for devolution and to ensure that the institutional arrangements we have are not always about fighting other arms of Government. For a bird to fly, it cannot ask whether it needs the right wing or the left wing. Unfortunately, the last Senate and the National Assembly wasted too much time in fights between each other. We wasted too much time as an institution fighting the Judiciary and the Judiciary fighting us. I hope we can realise that separation of powers also asks us all to cooperate and to work together for the benefit of the Kenyans who have elected us into this House. I look forward to a bold and accountable House that will protect and defend devolution, not necessarily by fighting governors, but by holding them accountable to their promises and to the dictates of the Constitution. Thank you."
}