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{
    "id": 846392,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/846392/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 298,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Seme, ODM",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. (Dr.) James Nyikal",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 434,
        "legal_name": "James Nyikal",
        "slug": "james-nyikal"
    },
    "content": " Thank you, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker. I rise to support this Bill that seeks to amend the Constitution by taking into consideration the other issues that have been raised by other Members like Hon. Anthony Oluoch. This issue has come on and off since 2013. As indicated earlier by other Members, Hon. Mutula Kilonzo was the first to come up with this amendment. At that time, there was even a Cabinet Committee that was set up to look at the date of the election and the proposal was that it should be in December. That came to Parliament and somehow it did not pass. I was not in Parliament then. In the last Parliament, Hon. David Ochieng’ came up with the same amendment. Now we are informed that there has been public participation. What that means is that there is need for the amendment. People have realised that there is an issue with the date. So, this is the time that we should look at it seriously. In all these attempts, the reasons have been the same - schools calendar and exams, synchronised budget day for the five countries of the East African Community, the issue of tourism, the issue of farmers and the issue of traditional ceremonies such as circumcision. Again, it shows that this is a matter that we are keen to have it sorted out. However, the real constitutional consideration is not simply changing the date. As we have seen in the Bill itself, once we look at the date of election, it touches on all other parts of the Constitution, including the extension of terms of offices, including that of the President. We are also aware that there are very many initiatives going on, including the committee of 14 working on the building bridges effort. All these initiatives are in the offing. We know that there are Members that have proposed Bills that may be coming, proposing to amend the Constitution. So, there is need to look at a comprehensive way of taking into consideration all these initiatives and what is considered as the need to change the date of elections to December. So, I support it because we really need to bring this to a conclusion."
}