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{
    "id": 759140,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/759140/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 86,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Mwaura",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13129,
        "legal_name": "Isaac Maigua Mwaura",
        "slug": "isaac-mwaura"
    },
    "content": "Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, I rise to support the appointment of Members to the select committee. As the Motion by the Senate Majority Leader has elucidated, it is clear that based on the Supreme Court ruling, we in Parliament have a responsibility to remove any ambiguities that would occasion a misinterpretation of the laws where we have been given responsibilities to legislate. Indeed, as a country, we are facing very extraordinary times because never before have we had a situation where our country has had to conduct a fresh election after we have just had one. If the challenges that have been witnesses in this country have been as a result of the law, it then follows that those provisions of the laws can only be rectified through amendments such as the ones that have been sponsored through this Bill by the distinguished Sen. Dullo. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, there have been so many contestations regarding the ruling of the majority for and of course the dissenting opinions and that is on record. Even the majority of the judges of the Supreme Court pointed out that the word “or” is very contentious. Going by what he said, Chief Justice Maraga said that there has never been a history in this republic where the word “or” had such important meaning as is the case. We have to agree as a country that our election system is first and foremost a manual process. There is a lot of misunderstanding that our elections system is electronic. Nothing can be further from the truth. You can even go way back in history and you will see that in many jurisdictions, what counts at the end is the ballot. The questions we should be asking are whether Kenyans woke up on 8th August to go and vote; whether Kenyans voted for the six candidates using ballot papers; and whether those ballot papers were counted and the answers are “yes”. If you go ahead to ask whether they were well stored as per the statutory provisions for three years, again the answer is “yes”. That is exactly what happened and it is for that reason that the counsel for the first and second respondents for the case required that the plastic ballot boxes be used for fresh elections. The court simply asked whether those were the elections materials. I sat there for more than 10 hours following the proceedings. So, Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, it is very important to ensure that we do not find excuse in the submission of the fact that we have an electronic system of transmission of"
}