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"content": "Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, also looking at the future, it is not enough to have these three people. We need to make serious amendments to the Political Parties Act. I say this not only focusing on expansion of membership but on other issues as well. We are going to have inter-party problems. Right now, political parties in their various forms are having rebellions, counter-rebellions, coups and counter-coups, planning and plotting, everything is going on. Definitely, three people are not going to be enough and I agree with the recommendation that we need to expand the membership of the Tribunal and structure it appropriately. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, some of the things that we need to think about are: How do we want the Office of the Registrar of Political Parties to operate? We need to look at this Act seriously. I want to say it on the Floor of this House that if we do not fix the Political Parties Act in good time, it is us, the political players, who are going to pay a big price. Right now, the Registrar of Political Parties operates like an addendum of the Interim Independent Electoral Commission (IIEC). It was a struggle to even get an office for her. They tuck her somewhere in Anniversary Towers. In the hierarchy of the IIEC, the Registrar of Political Parties is even lower than a Deputy Director of the IIEC and yet this is the person who makes decisions on millions of shillings involving parties. On the way political parties must operate, this is the person we expect to give direction when we have issues within political parties. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, if political parties are the ones that form governments, we cannot allow the Registrar of Political Parties to be so demeaned in the way they have structured her position, yet it is that person who is supposed to be the referee when we quarrel. We have definite provisions in the Constitution on how political parties will operate. This time, we made sure we put it there, the same way we put for KACC, Central Bank of Kenya and other institutions. We must now think seriously of bringing amendments to this House to strengthen the office of the Registrar of Political Parties so that it can operate at the same level with KACC. There must be a board, Registrar of Political Parties, Deputy Registrar in charge of disputes, Deputy Registrar in charge of finances and Deputy Registrar in charge of registration of political parties. We must create something that we can live with and something that is above there. We must give it independence. We must give it strength and it must not be subordinate to the IIEC, the way they have treated that office. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, it is in our power to create laws that are going to serve us. I think, Members of Parliament, now we have to be selfish about organizing our election laws. We should be organized for the next Parliament. We are talking about restructuring the Provincial Administration and so many other things - those are executive matters – but what about ourselves? What laws are we putting in place to organize our politics? I think it is time we brought serious amendments to that Act so that we can live with it. Lastly, Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I wanted to say that I am happy with the names that have been proposed here and I support all of them, but I wanted to also mention one thing. It is not fair for us to inundate all commissions with lawyers, and in particular lawyers who have not participated in political actions. I am of the view that this is one of those committees that should have been inundated with retired politicians who know the exigencies of the moment, who will not take too much time on procedure and forget that we have to nominate. We need people who have been, maybe former Members of Parliament. They know all these problems that we undergo before we get our nomination certificates. Maybe a chairman should have been one of those people who have been rigged out in a previous nomination. That would be a"
}