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{
    "id": 850572,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/850572/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 310,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Suba North, ODM",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. (Ms.) Odhiambo-Mabona",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 376,
        "legal_name": "Millie Grace Akoth Odhiambo Mabona",
        "slug": "millie-odhiambo-mabona"
    },
    "content": " Thank you, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker for giving me this opportunity. I want to thank the Committee for this Report. My comments will be very few because most of what I wanted to say is in tandem with what other Members have said. One, it is incumbent upon the Government to ensure that we follow the Constitution so that the stipulated amount that should go to political parties goes to political parties. It is true that the direction we are taking as a country is to institutionalise political parties so that they are at the level that countries that have gone through proper democracy are. I am putting a precaution because I have been observing the elections of the United States of America that have just been concluded recently. There is something that they can learn from struggling democracies like us. We do not want them to learn the negative things. For the first time we are seeing that they were having kits that were failing, others were alleging rigging. I was looking and wondering whether it was Kenya or the United States of America. That aside, we have always emulated countries like the United States of America. Kenya has had its problems but if we give money to the political parties the way they should, then our political parties will get an opportunity to institutionalise and that would depersonalise political parties, as members have been saying. We will not be having things like the ones we are seeing now. Today in the newspapers, we saw that KANU offices are going to be sold because they are not able to service electricity bills that have accumulated over years. If we want to rely on the good charity of founder members of the party to be the ones that are paying bills, then definitely if I am the one paying the bills, I will become the owner of the party. But if the Government is paying for the parties, then we depersonalise those parties. I have also heard Hon. Chris Wamalwa pleading so that the siblings of ODM can get a little money from ODM. It is in order, but ODM will only be able to give money to the siblings if the Government gives ODM its due money under the Political Parties Act."
}