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{
    "id": 762615,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/762615/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 1110,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. Bowen",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 2256,
        "legal_name": "David Kangongo Bowen",
        "slug": "david-kangongo-bowen"
    },
    "content": "Government is made of three arms. This is Parliament and it is independent of the Executive and the Judiciary. No one should dictate to this House whether to pass this law or not. It is the right of this House and Hon. Members to discuss any Bill any time as long as it is a Bill which will help Kenyans and the country in the coming election and in future elections. The amendment provided for the case of the Chairperson of IEBC is very simple. What if the chair is not feeling well or is absent? The Bill is basically providing a way of having another person to take over the roles of a chair and announce results. There is nothing wrong with that. For the case of alternative transmission of results, the IEBC commissioners appeared before the committee and called for manual delivery of these forms to the tallying centre. Hon. Cheptumo said that a lady came before their committee, and she was just a representative of so many Kenyans. A man, a woman or a young man has gone to vote. You have chosen your leader and you go home. Someone somewhere did not sign the form; the form was not stamped. Whose problem is that? Can we make it now that the IEBC, when printing the ballot papers, let them print the ballot papers together with the names of all the voters in all the polling stations? Can they make rubber stamps for all Kenyans who are eligible to vote so that when my mother goes to the polling station, she goes also with her rubber stamp, she gets her form, she votes and signs and stamps herself? That is in case there is an issue ahead of her, she is able to come and say this was my paper or this was not my paper. We need to respect the rights of the voter at that time of marking or choosing a leader. If there is an issue in future or a server was defective - my mother does not know what a server is. She does not know a password or those kinds of things. This law also addresses the negligence of those officials of the IEBC; the presiding officers and returning officers, who are not going to sign or do their work diligently. In case you are a presiding officer and there are so many errors in forms 34A, 34B and 34C some of which were not signed as were pronounced at the Supreme Court… Actually, many of them were from the Opposition side. When they saw they lost, they called their officers not to sign those forms just to sabotage the process so that they can get a leeway. The law which we are discussing today is that when you are an election officer, you have a responsibility to this country and its many millions of voters. If you do not sign your form, if you do not stamp your vote, if you do not do what is expected of you, then you should carry the cross. What is wrong with that? I think we need to have these people work responsibly. We want to tell Kenyans who are saying that we are rushing these laws - from this side of the House where I am talking from - that we are supporting this Bill. We do not have a problem."
}