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"id": 1537662,
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"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Sen. Wakili Sigei",
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"content": "The Ethics and Anticorruption Commission (EACC) Act is what has been tabled and it is pending in the National Assembly as of now. This House and the Standing Committee on Justice, Legal Affairs and Human Rights Committee (JLHRC) had its commitment that dealt with four proposals in an amendment of the election offenses, Elections, Statutory Instruments, as well as the Political Parties Act. All these four statutes have already received their reports. They have been passed by this House and transmitted to the National Assembly for further processing. The Joint Committee thereafter dealt with proposals that would require constitutional amendments. It comprised 15 members of the National Assembly JLAHRC and nine Members of the Senate JLAHRC Committee. It dealt with the report of what proposals had been made about the proposed amendments to the Constitution and secondly, the report by the multi-sectorial working group that also had its proposal on the Constitutional amendments as well as the implementation of the two-third gender principle. This Committee, of course, had joint sessions. With a very informed mind in ensuring that the proposals that Kenyans made to the National Dialogue Committee (NADCO) are also input to ensure that these constitutional amendments would achieve the proposals made by Kenyans in seeking to promote the unity and inclusivity of whatever the government of the day would be expected to do for the people of Kenya as it serves in office. It was also aimed at ensuring that we, as leadership, enhance representation of the democratic space of this country. That is why in the proposals that Kenyans made to the NADCO, they sought to ensure that as we look at making amendments to the Constitution, we can ensure that there is some level of transparency of the people who are holding office, the election process itself and also to ensure that we establish appropriate and adequate checks and balances to the government in place. This was out of the many proposals for changes to the election laws that was the first and most critical issue that Kenyans had raised. In this case, there was an aspect of the delimitation of boundaries, which is a constitutional issue that affects the boundaries. In the case of the IEBC, it was past the period within which the law required them to do. Kenyans raised the concern saying that there has been an enhanced population across the country and it was time to allow Parliament to enhance the period within which IEBC would be expected to undertake the delimitation of boundaries. Secondly, the other specific aspect that also required this Constitutional amendment was the requirement to have some level of decorum in how members of a political party are treated, and how they are required to display their loyalty when they are serving their respective political parties. This is under the provisions of the Constitution. This was a subject that also required Members to deal with timelines of determination of a question as to the validity of the presidential election. Remember, the Constitution as of now provides that this question should and must be determined within a period of 14 days. Very many Kenyans have raised concerns about the limitation of the entitlement of Kenyans to deal with that question beyond the 14 days. It was one of those issues that the Joint Committee deliberated on and made proposals to Constitutional amendments. The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposes only.A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Director, Hansard and Audio Services,Senate."
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"id": 1537663,
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"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Sen. Wakili Sigei",
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"content": "Another very important issue that Kenyans spoke to this joint committee was the introduction of the Office of the Leader of Opposition as well as the Office of two Deputies to the leader of Opposition in Parliament and also further the introduction and constitutionalization of the Office of the Prime Minister (PM). These two, required Kenyans to subject these to a referendum. Consequently, this Joint Committee made recommendations to ensure that as we prepare for a roadmap to comply and implement fully the recommendations of the NADCO, we set up a three-pronged approach. One is on the constitutional amendment that will not require a referendum. Kenyans are made to participate fully through public participation on the draft legislation that will require the entrenchment of the national government, this is the National Government Affirmative Action Fund (NGAAF) as well as the National Government Constituencies Development Fund (NG-CDF) in the Constitution. Those two laws do not require a referendum. As we speak right now, a draft Bill has already been done in the National Assembly. It has been tabled and Kenyans will be called upon to be involved in commenting on their position about those special funds. This was advanced because of the decision by the Supreme Court as to the constitutionality of those special funds. Kenyans will have a say as to whether or not it will survive or be dropped. Secondly, is on the two-thirds agenda principle. Remember we have had over 13 Bills in the previous Parliaments, including the 11th, the 12th. The current 13th Parliament will be receiving it for the 14th time a Bill on the implementation of the two-thirds agenda principle. The joint committee, in its wisdom, recommended that this proposal will not require a constitutional referendum. Therefore, a draft bill to implement it will suffice if it is brought before the House as long as it attracts the two-thirds requirement of Members in the National Assembly as well as in the Senate. On the Bills that will require a referendum, the Committee recommended that this will be subject to a referendum and therefore the draft Bill must be extensively put before the public. As I table this Report, I seek the support of the Members to make sure that the recommendations that the JLAHRC of the National Assembly and that of the Senate as well as the joint sessions of the NADCO, which comprise Members of the two Houses and the joint sessions of the Justice and Legal Affairs Committees in making these recommendations speak to the interest of the Kenyans who were involved when demonstrations were happening across the country leading to the creation of the bipartisan dialogue which gave rise to the National Dialogue Committee (NADCO). I ask Members to also interrogate the issues which Kenyans raised. As I move this Motion, it will not only affect the various laws which have been proposed, it will affect a number of policies for the Government of the day, ensuring that it serves the interest of the people, it looks beyond the current situation as is and make policies which support the posterity of this country. Mr. Speaker, Sir, I appreciate the members of the committee for their industry, involvement and participation. Additionally, I appreciate the Office of the Clerk as well as the Office of the Speaker for the support that it gave to not only JLACHR as a Committee of this House, but to the Joint Committee that was a consequence of the reports that we received leading to the tabling of this Report. The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposes only.A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Director, Hansard and Audio Services,Senate."
},
{
"id": 1537664,
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"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Sen. Wakili Sigei",
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"speaker": null,
"content": "Mr. Speaker, Sir, I beg to table and ask Sen. (Dr.) Khalwale to second the Motion."
},
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"id": 1537665,
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"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Sen. (Dr.) Khalwale",
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"speaker": {
"id": 170,
"legal_name": "Bonny Khalwale",
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"content": "Thank you, Mr. Speaker, Sir. To me, seconding this Motion is very significant. I believe if the recommendations of the Committee that sat on the NADCO were to go through, there would be momentous change in the way we practise politics, govern the country and live. I, therefore, want to strongly support and highlight just a few reasons why I think this is important. I have full confidence in the membership that sat on NADCO and also the Committee on JLAC in the National Assembly and JLACHR in this House. Therefore, I would remain in total agreement with most, if not all, the recommendations contained therein."
},
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"id": 1537666,
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"text_counter": 164,
"type": "scene",
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"speaker": null,
"content": "(Sen. Dullo consulted loudly)"
},
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"id": 1537667,
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"text_counter": 165,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Hon. Kingi",
"speaker_title": "The Speaker",
"speaker": null,
"content": " Sen. Fatuma, you may want to consult in a low tone, so that you do not disrupt the thinking and flow of thoughts of Sen. (Dr.) Boni. Proceed."
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"id": 1537668,
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"speaker_name": "Sen. (Dr.) Khalwale",
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"legal_name": "Bonny Khalwale",
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"content": "Thank you, Mr. Speaker, Sir. I say so with a degree of pride that I was a Member of the original bipartisan committee that gave birth to NADCO. I see a few things that stand out, and one I would like to speak to very quickly is the two-thirds gender rule. The two-thirds gender rule has remained a vexing issue since the new Constitution was promulgated. It does not matter that many attempts, I believe up to 13, have been made to achieve the two-thirds gender rule. What matters is why it failed the first time, second time, all the way up to the thirteenth time. Possibly, the kind of public participation that we allow to take place when it comes to this provision is not adequate or could be done in a better manner. Mr. Speaker, Sir, just like the majority of you who are privileged to come from houses where the majority are the female gender, like most men, you are there, you are the only man heading the house, but there is a wife and daughters. You always find that you are crowded. Thus, we are very comfortable with handling issues of women, and we love them. Mr. Speaker, Sir, we will give it to them. Nonetheless, I want to challenge not the womenfolk, but the people who will benefit from the two-thirds gender rule. I would like them to allow us also to democratise the process of identifying beneficiaries. I mean, that in its current form, it is difficult to know how one nominated Senator or nominated Member of the National Assembly found their way into these two Houses. I have never understood how they managed. I was trying to have a small discussion with my young, Sen. Hezena, on what they did and she told me, ‘go away’. Therefore, I am still waiting for the privilege of hearing from her on how she made it. It is so difficult. I, therefore, propose that under the new structure, women who get nominated should not be nominated by political parties. They should be allowed to undergo a process of election where the voters shall be only women. If we have 16 slots of Senators to vote, then those names should be presented to the public, and then those 16 names should be voted for. The top 16, cross the line and become nominated. The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposes only.A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Director, Hansard and Audio Services,Senate."
},
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"text_counter": 167,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Sen. (Dr.) Khalwale",
"speaker_title": "",
"speaker": {
"id": 170,
"legal_name": "Bonny Khalwale",
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"content": "Secondly, the people from special groups, like People with Disabilities (PwDs). I do not know how they get nominated. We should allow PWDs to be the principal decision makers and subject the beneficiaries to a vote. Finally, on this particular point, the people who get through these special seats, the 47 women elected in the National Assembly, plus whatever number we shall add them, should be allowed to run for that election only once. A woman MP representing a county should not be allowed to be re-elected more than once. They should learn the ropes in the first five years. At the end of it, they go for competitive seats. Similarly, PwDs should serve for five years. After five years, they then should face a competitive election. The reason I am saying this is because the spirit of nomination was not to create an opportunity for people to get freebies. It was an opportunity which was meant in the letter and spirit of this Constitution, to allow “people with limited capacities to win an election, to learn how the gurus like Raila Odinga, Uhuru Kenyatta, Musalia Mudavadi and Boni Khalwale made it to their political positions. I say this because we are the guys who have won elections not once, twice, thrice or four times, but in my case, five times. We are the gurus, so that they learn from us how we do it and then they go and compete. They are not to keep on hanging outside this door wanting to come here one election after another that I want to benefit from nomination over and over again. The second point I want to speak to is that you have seen the wind behind the sails of wanting to see NADCO suddenly become strong at a time that the President and the former Prime Minister have created some camaraderie. I am hoping that this new-found interest in making sure that NADCO goes through is not for purposes of serving the Broad- Based Government. The Broad-Based Government, just like the Handshake Government, that yielded Building Bridges Initiative (BBI) will go the way that Government went. We cannot afford a situation where we want to amend the Constitution, so as either to massage the egos of the proponents of the Broad-Based Government or to reward the beneficiaries of the Broad-Based Government. Mr. Speaker, Sir, we are all men and women of this Republic and we hear both the normal talk and the talk in the grapevine. These days, the talk on social media, which is part of our lives--- I do not like what I am hearing. What I am starting to hear at those three levels is as if somebody wants to fix another person or a particular party and not the other one, or a particular region at the expense of another one and a community. If that is the spirit of the Broad-based Government, it would be wrong. We should never punish anybody. I hear repeatedly people speaking of Gachagua or “Riggy G”. The story of “Riggy G” is gone. “Riggy G” was given an opportunity in this House to face me, Sen. Omogeni and all of us and he chickened out. That is a story which is gone. Let all politicians, especially from Mt. Kenya region, enjoy equal opportunity in the broad-based Government. When we were constituting the new look committees, unknown to this House, I failed to discharge my role as a Chief Whip who, under our Standing Orders, is supposed to take the lead in reconstituting committees. As a man who joined the struggle at an early age of 22 years at the University of Nairobi (UON), I find it difficult to be part of an exercise that was meant to be exclusive rather than inclusive. The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposes only.A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Director, Hansard and Audio Services,Senate."
},
{
"id": 1537670,
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"text_counter": 168,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Sen. (Dr.) Khalwale",
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"content": "This is the way to go. Today, you are on top, tomorrow you are not. Today, you are on the strong side of the wind, tomorrow you are not. We want to build a country that gives all Kenyans equal opportunity. I see, for example, some noise building around certain members of the Cabinet; that probably X, Y or Z might be removed so as to pave way for the new look broad-based Government. I want to send an early warning that this will be wrong. Whoever is starting to raise issues on Dr. Debora Mulongo Barasa, if you think that is the way to fix the broad- based Government, you should know that Mulongo, who did not apply for that job because she was very busy in her medical practice, also comes from our community. That community has heavy fighters and sometimes we throw very heavy punches, including Dr. Boni Khalwale. Nobody should intimidate Dr. Mulongo. Concerning the issue of the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) in this report, we should expedite the process. The other day we lost our colleague from Baringo County. The people of Baringo County need a Senator here. Three Members of Parliament have lost their lives and one MP lost his seat through a petition. Those four constituencies deserve representation, not to mention the 14 wards that have lost Members of the County Assembly (MCAs) for one reason or another. Even as we do so, this will depend on the integrity of the selective panel. The IEBC Selection Panel, wherever you are, please, do not bring to us the same mistakes that your predecessors vested on this country. We have been in this country long enough to know that one of the greatest destabilizers of national unity, peace and democratisation is the elections of Kenya. Its integrity is tested around the Commission and its chairman. Please give us good people. I went through the advertisement you made last week and saw the people who had applied to be Commissioners. I have seen some fairly very good names amongst the professionals who have expressed interest. Please, Selection Panel, avoid the temptation to recycle names. Just because a name is an old name in the papers, media and public domain should not be given preference. Let the interviewing process be accompanied with the lords upon lords of integrity so that we get the best commissioners and chairman. What is more, the Mover of the Motion has spoken to the issue of delimitation. Many Kenyans listening to me think that when delimitation will take place, they will get new constituencies. No, there will be no new constituencies. We will have change in boundaries and in some cases, the change of the names of the electoral units. That is it. If you are at home expecting to get a new constituency, forget about it. If you think we should propose the amendment of the Constitution to the Article, whose number I have forgotten, that provides that Kenya shall have 290 constituencies. Until you amend that, your constituency can be as big as some of those constituencies are, but you will not get it because of this National Dialogue Committee (NADCO) report. Mr. Speaker, Sir, the last point I want to make on IEBC and this NADCO report is the issue of the presidential election. We must all go out of our way when the time is necessary. I know you can purport to come to legislate, but I will come to you to help me so that we can draft the law in such a manner that there can be a closure of our presidential election. The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposes only.A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Director, Hansard and Audio Services,Senate."
},
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"text_counter": 169,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Sen. (Dr.) Khalwale",
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"content": "After we voted in 1992, there was no closure until people jostled and before we could know it, there was something called cooperation because there was no closure of the presidential election. In 2007, there was no closure of the presidential election. It went on until our country went bust, only coming to be calmed because of the so-called Nusu Mkate . There must be a closure of a presidential election. Fast forward, 2017, you could not get closure of the presidential election. It went on with a lot of noise, loss of lives, destruction of properties until some Mongrel that you called ‘handshake’ came on and stabilised the country. You can see the same nonsense is what we are going through now. Instead of closing the election, we are still talking about the presidential election. Until now, we are talking about something called Broad-based Government. For those of us who have committed our lives to the respect of the Constitution and the rule of law, I am unable to see a single Article in the Constitution that is called broad- based. We must learn how to bring presidential elections to a closure. I would like to speak to special funds. I do not know whether it is the Mover who forgot, but you have spoken to special funds and spoken about only two, National Government Constituencies Development Fund (NG-CDF) and National Government Affirmative Action Fund (NGAAF). I have heard only that. Why are you not speaking of an oversight fund?"
}
]
}