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{
"id": 7835,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/7835/?format=api",
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"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Mrs. Odhiambo-Mabona",
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"speaker": {
"id": 376,
"legal_name": "Millie Grace Akoth Odhiambo Mabona",
"slug": "millie-odhiambo-mabona"
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"content": "Thank you, Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir. In supporting this Motion, I wish to indicate that even though the nominees are not personally known to me, I want to agree with the Commission in relation to the reasons that they have given. One of the things I want to comment on is what the Seconder spoke to, that they took into account the issue of regional balance. One of the things I want to indicate in relation to that is that the Constitution provides that in every nomination, we shall take into account regional and ethnic balance. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I want to indicate that as Members of Parliament, we must internalize what that means. Even though the Constitution does not define what a region means, we must either come up with a law that defines what a region is, or we must start thinking what constitutes a region. Broadly, we still think of regions as provinces, so that when we appoint people we go by provinces. The Constitution provides for counties. Therefore, when we do nominations you will hear Members complaining that their counties have not been considered. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, in the nomination to another commission, one of the major issues of concern that was raised in relation to the nomination of Winnie Lichuma was the same issue. Hon. Members must be clear that even when there are nominations to be done that cover the old Western Province, there are counties and there must be a balance. I think what the Principals were trying to do in jumping from number one to number four, which was jumping from the person who was number one, whom I think was Ms Maria Nzomo in the list for the Chair to Winnie, who was number four, was to ensure that a county that had hitherto not had somebody was represented. However, I would advise the Principals that whenever that kind of situation arises, there must be a memorandum or some written explanation to Parliament, so that we do not see the kind of questions that were being asked, and that has made people start wondering whether there is a problem with Winnie Lichuma when there is no problem with her. She was my classmate. She is a lawyer and she is very competent. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I want to speak again to the issue of ethnic balancing that is also provided for in the Constitution. When we come to this House, many people say that we should not take into account issues of ethnicity. However, we are the ones who took that into account and put it in the Constitution. The reason we did this was so that we must take into account all ethnic communities in Kenya. We must be alive to the fact that there are certain ethnic communities that are more populous than others. Therefore, in appointments, there must be some level of equality while we take into account equity. We must recognize that there are populous and minority communities. We must also recognize that while we should give opportunities to the majority communities, we must also take into account the smaller communities. We may not take into the smaller communities in the same measure, but we must now and again take them into account. That is why, for instance, in the boundaries commission, even though there was a Luo who did very well and was ahead, the person who was taken was a Kuria. That is why even in a past commission, the lady who was number one and was a Luo, Dr. Odhiambo of Egerton University, with 80 marks was not taken. The second person who had 69 per cent came from Meru and was taken. It is a sacrifice that we must be prepared to pay as a country for purposes of unity. With those few remarks, I support."
}