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{
    "id": 838512,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/838512/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 179,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Nyaribari Chache, JP",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Richard Tong’i",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 2611,
        "legal_name": "Richard Nyagaka Tongi",
        "slug": "richard-nyagaka-tongi"
    },
    "content": " Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, thank you for the opportunity. At the outset, I support this Bill for many good reasons. If you look at our calendar, traditions, culture and values as Kenyans, you will agree with all of us that most of our social activities are done around December. If you go to my village and many parts of Kenya where we conduct circumcision, we do it in the month of December because it is naturally a convenient date for everybody. Laws are made based on the culture, values and practices of the people. We do most of our major activities as a country around the month of December. If you look at the changes we have made, most of them were shifted to August and have actually affected our ways of living and our practices, and it is not good for the country. That is why I support the amendment to move this date to December because it is a natural date for Kenyans and for our children because they already have it at the back of their minds that the best time to do an exam is around that time. Most of them will have finished their exams by December. Like now, they are starting exams in two weeks and by end of November, most of them will have finished and they will be at home. It is the longest educational holiday that we have in the country and there is no reason we cannot pick on it and yet it is the most convenient for Kenyans. Two, part of the reason we have had chaos after elections is because some people who register as voters never go to the village to vote. They look at their income and they do not find August to be a convenient date. They are given only two days to travel upcountry to go and vote. Around that time traffic is heavy. Naturally, somebody would want to look at the cost-benefit analysis. What is there for him to travel to upcountry so as to support the electoral process? They choose not to go. You end up with a huge number of registered voters but the actual numbers of people who vote are so few. It will enhance transparency and opportunities of people getting a chance to elect leaders of their choice. If we do not do that, we end up with people who ordinarily would not have won had we allowed everybody else to participate in the election exercise on a date which is convenient to every Kenyan. If you look at the cycle of our finance reporting as a country, we do it at the end of the year. Most of companies in the corporate world do their financial reporting at the end of the year, around November and December. Therefore, it is easier for anybody working in a company to get a few days off around December because already they have tuned their minds that it is a holiday season and they have an opportunity to go home and be with their family members. Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, with those few reasons, I propose that we support this Bill. We tried in the last Parliament and the arguments were making a lot of sense but because most people were scared of the timing, they thought voters would be up in arms against us. We made a mistake and we have paid for it so dearly. I would wish to encourage my colleagues who have not had an opportunity to experience the past mistake that we made too kindly support this The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposes only. Acertified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor."
}