Entry Instance

HTTP 200 OK
Allow: GET, PUT, PATCH, DELETE, HEAD, OPTIONS
Content-Type: application/json
Vary: Accept

{
    "id": 759693,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/759693/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 269,
    "type": "other",
    "speaker_name": "",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "2017. For any law abiding citizen, that should have been enough so that we prepare for the fresh election. The court did nullify the election. It talked about the systemic failures within the IEBC and they hinted that those system failures must be corrected. It will be fair if all players who are neither IEBC nor the courts themselves will abide by the ruling of the Supreme Court and wait for the fresh election to be held again. Engaging in other extrajudicial means of going to the streets and creating chaos in the country is actually very dangerous. Today, Kenyans wake up every morning worried whether they can go to Nairobi City or go about their businesses. Actually what worry people is not the question of them picketing. However, it is because the nature of Kenyans’ demonstrations is very violent; people loot, destroy and burn properties and even stone cars. Even the university students when they hold their demonstrations, they are normally very violent. When it comes to electioneering that is actually very dangerous. Therefore, leaders who are inciting Kenyans to go out to the streets to make noise and to evict people from their offices by force are living in a different century from us. This cannot be accepted. We, as leaders, must talk against it. In our tradition we say, “if you see something bad, stop it by your hand. If you cannot stop it by your hand;, meaning by fighting it, talk about it. If you cannot talk about it, hate it and walk away from it.” We are now in a stage that we must talk about it and tell them that they are wrong. Our colleagues are wrong. They are putting Kenya in a very bad position. They are trying to precipitate some crisis which I do not know whether they intend to win with. As some of my colleagues said here, maybe they want to create a crisis to enable them to come to a negotiation table with their counterparts. The era when Kenyans used to come to the table and negotiate on how to form governments is long gone. Kenyans elect their leaders and Government through the ballot. That is the only way. I congratulate the IEBC for being brave enough for trying to put in place the fresh election on 26th October, 2017. We should support them so that that election takes place. We also do not need the help of an organisation like the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). Kenya is not a failed State. We are not a Banana republic. We do not want the United Nations (UN) to come and supervise our elections. The call by some quarters and even the IEBC alluding to engage the UNDP in the fresh election is wrong. We want the IEBC which is actually mandated by the Constitution to do the elections. We want everybody to abide by that. Kenyans, in their wisdom, must condemn the people who are asking them to engage in demonstrations to evict 12 IEBC officials from their offices. That is not acceptable in this day and age. We will not accept that. Kenyans must go back to election and whoever loses must accept the verdict and the will of the people. If you win, fair enough. It is important that as leaders in the Senate, the National Assembly and other leaders in this country, we must condemn any attempt by anybody to subvert the will of the people by taking us to the streets as if we are fighting for a new political dispensation or a new Constitution. We have a new Constitution. Chapter 4 of the Constitution on the Bill of Rights protects the rights of the people. We do not want to violate the peoples’ rights to their properties by destroying their properties."
}