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{
    "id": 850595,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/850595/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 333,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Mathare, ODM",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Anthony Oluoch",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13425,
        "legal_name": "Anthony Tom Oluoch",
        "slug": "anthony-tom-oluoch-2"
    },
    "content": " Thank you, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker. Allow me to add my voice and support this Report by the Special Funds Accounts Committee. I wanted to add a little context to what my friend, Hon. Ngunjiri, had said and which context is within the confines of the Constitution. The Constitution has, indeed, entrenched the position and the place of political parties in the current dispensation. So, that can no longer be overemphasised or gainsaid. The second point that I want to say is that in deciding whether or not to fund political parties, the question is not if. This is because a decision of the High Court in 2015 and which I placed before the Chambers, indeed, stated that Parliament and Treasury do not have the discretion. When you read the wordings of Sections 24 to 25 – and it talks about 0.3 – it says: “Every year, at least…” That word has been interpreted by our High Court to mean that this House has discretion to allocate money above the 0.3. We do not have the discretion to decide to go below. I am saying that because of the second point which is in page 816 of the Report. This was also touched on by the courts. The courts noted that this House has occasioned arrears in the funding of political parties to the extent that parties are almost crippled. The court in its own 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."
}