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{
"id": 762661,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/762661/?format=api",
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"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Hon. Manje",
"speaker_title": "",
"speaker": {
"id": 1669,
"legal_name": "Joseph Wathigo Manje",
"slug": "joseph-wathigo-manje"
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"content": "and clumsy. However, if we were to have any good method of transporting all the 290 Forms 34B to the national tallying centre, that would be the correct thing to do. Then when there is discrepancy between the electronic and the original one, it is common sense that the original one is the correct thing because the scanned copy is from the original. It becomes obvious that we should go by the original copy, which is the copy from the polling station. I also want to touch a bit on the composition of the Commission. There is a time I was a commissioner at the Teachers Service Commission (TSC). So, I know very well that according to our Act of Parliament, whenever we sat down even as three commissioners to deliberate on issues of the Commission, the decisions we reached were binding. We used to go out anywhere, assemble three commissioners and deliberate and the action we would take would be binding to the whole TSC. Therefore, the proposed amendment here only serves to streamline the decision that you require only three commissioners to have a quorum to deliberate upon an issue. Apart from conducting elections, there are other functions of the IEBC. For example, they can sit and discuss a certain polling station. You need to have the nine commissioners sitting down to discuss, say, a polling station somewhere, but it is also true that three of them can sit and come up with a decision, maybe, to change that polling station. When it comes to qualifications of the Chairman of the Commission, I think we should consider any qualified Kenyan. There is a unit in the University of Nairobi that is called Pure Management Science. It does not really focus on whether you fall in the lower division or something else. If you really are a manager, then you can manage elections even if you are not a lawyer. I also want to touch on Clause 10(a) which is very important. Now, where one of the candidates withdraws from an election, then it means the remaining candidate will be declared the President. That is what this Bill is trying to address. Even in a football match, because the National Super Alliance candidate likes to give an analogy of a football match, if one team does not appear in a competition, the other one is generally awarded the marks. The law should be changed so that if one of the candidates withdraws, then the other one is awarded the presidency. We should not subject Kenyans to another election. I also want to touch on penalties. If somebody deliberately fails to sign the forms, he or she should be charged harshly by our laws. That is because that would be a show of great weakness. We should not be subjected to a petition again only to find that some documents were not signed. Furthermore, the returning officers and presiding officers are paid to do the job. If they are paid to do the job, they should do the correct thing. Otherwise, they should be punished. Apart from that one, we should bring a further amendment saying that if a presiding officer or a returning officer sends information to any other part or place other than to the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission, they should be penalized. You remember they were saying that they would have a tallying centre somewhere. It is because they thought some of the presiding officers would send the correct information to their tallying centre, which was to find its own way to the IEBC servers. Such a person should also be punished. Therefore, the returning officer or the presiding officer should send information to IEBC only. Otherwise, that person should be punished heavily. It is also very important to say that the scanned document, because it is the truthful one, should be sent to the constituency tallying centre and also to the national tallying centre. It should be followed by the manual part to the constituency tallying centre just the way it happened for the members of the county assemblies (MCAs) and Members of Parliament. Actually, it did not require the returning officer to wait for the scanned form or the electronic 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."
}