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{
    "id": 833630,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/833630/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 249,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Sakaja",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13131,
        "legal_name": "Johnson Arthur Sakaja",
        "slug": "johnson-arthur-sakaja"
    },
    "content": "Thank you, Madam Temporary Speaker. The Bill by Sen. Pareno, as brief as it may be, is good because it addresses one of the most cardinal principles of our Constitution. The framework of the constitutional order that we have now is one that, first of all, affirms in Article 1 that all sovereign power rests with the people. It further qualifies that, and says that the power can only be exercised through the Constitution. It goes further to say that the people can exercise their power directly or through their elected representatives. That then gives us the theory of representation. Madam Temporary Speaker, there is need to have representativeness and the voice of all shades of the society in a democratic society. The people are then divided into geographical areas of representativeness. This is so that they can then produce one person like them, who they think can represent them in a House where there is equality of vote. The only two houses with equality of vote are the National Assembly and county assemblies. Those are representative houses which represent individuals; they represent, as equal as possible, a number of people. That is why we had to undergo a re-districting process of delimitation. During the Kenya African National Union (KANU) era, President Moi undertook what we call “gerrymandering.” Through this, he ensured that the areas where he had support had more Members of Parliament (MPs) and the areas he did not have support had fewer MPs. This resulted in some imbalance in representation. In fact, one of the biggest points of the Kriegler Report was that for us to have electoral justice and equity, we must make sure that we have equality of the vote and one man, one vote. Of course, Article 89 of the Constitution then provides parameters through which we can balance that. Therefore, that is what a county assembly and the National Assembly are."
}