Entry Instance

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

{
    "id": 762572,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/762572/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 1067,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. Cheptumo",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 50,
        "legal_name": "William Cheptumo Kipkiror",
        "slug": "william-kipkiror"
    },
    "content": "it? That is why on 8th August, these Members were given the power to pass laws. I do not want to go beyond that. I just want to humbly submit before this House that it is important that we expand the definition of a chairperson to include another person who is acting in that office. Allow me to now go to Clause 3 of the Bill which seeks to amend Section 6 of the IEBC Act. The clause touches on the qualification of appointment as the IEBC chairperson. It is important for Members to know that under Section 6 (1) of the IEBC Act, the qualification for the Chair of the IEBC is that the person should have the qualifications to be a Judge of the Supreme Court. That provision is critical because it is important to note the nature of the functions and the business of IEBC. I was convinced that we needed to expand the qualifications of the IEBC Chair again. Section 6(1) of the Act is so limiting and narrow. It gives one single profession of law, to provide the leadership of IEBC. We have the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission with a bishop as its chair. When I was vetting that Chairman of the Commission, I asked him how possible it was for him to perform the function. Being a bishop who should be praying for people, how would he then chase a thief and arrest him? Finally, this House approved the Bishop as the Chair of the EACC. We should not allow the chair of IEBC to have the single qualification of being a lawyer. It is against the provisions of the Constitution under Article 232, which requires that all offices should be competitive. Just to confirm how much we value public participation, in the public areas, so many Kenyans supported the idea of this proposed Amendment Bill. Some said that we should allow that particular person holding the office of the Chairman of the IEBC to be a lawyer. In the Committee of the whole House stage, I will inform the House that after discussions, we felt that it was important that that particular provision not be amended. As a Committee, we also agreed that we retain that qualification that the Chair of IEBC should be a lawyer. Again, when the debate was ongoing and people were shouting around, they said they want to reduce the powers of the Chair of the Commission. I can confirm to the House that the Committee I was chairing, with very great minds from the Senate and this House, agreed that we retain that position because there are other functions in the Commission which require a lawyer to preside over. So we agreed that we retain that position. In the Committee of the whole House stage, I will propose an amendment to that particular section. We confirm to the nation that we did not take the public participation as a public relations exercise. We valued them and have carried their proposals. Allow me to go to Clause 4 of the Bill. This clause seeks to amend the Second Schedule of the IEBC Act, with regard to the quorum required for the conduct of business of the IEBC and the threshold required for decision-making at the Commission. This is for continuity purposes and it is being corrected by the oversight Joint Parliamentary Select Committee on the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission. You recall in April this year, we had a Joint Parliamentary Select Committee for this House and the Senate which was dealing with the IEBC matters. There was a serious omission in that particular report because the membership of the Commission at that time was nine. That Committee reduced the number from nine to seven. Unfortunately, they did not also reduce the quorum. When the commissioners were nine, the quorum was five. When that Committee reduced the number of the commissioners from nine to seven, they still also maintained the quorum at five. That was a big anomaly. Therefore, this amendment is meant to rectify that, so that we do not again maintain a higher quorum level while we have reduced the number of commissioners from nine to seven. That is the essence of that proposed amendment under Clause 4. 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."
}