{"count":1608389,"next":"http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/?format=json&page=139502","previous":"http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/?format=json&page=139500","results":[{"id":1411421,"url":"http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1411421/?format=json","text_counter":169,"type":"speech","speaker_name":"Kibwezi West, MCCP","speaker_title":"Hon. Mwengi Mutuse","speaker":null,"content":"It would also be remembered that while Article 89 provides for delimitation of boundaries between every eight to 12 years, the procedure for that delimitation has never been legislated upon. It has been left for the IEBC and Kenyans to wonder in darkness and imagination how the process should be carried out. This is the first time in the history of our electoral reforms that we are putting up a procedure of how the process of delimitation of boundaries is going to be carried out. I urge Members of Parliament to look carefully at the procedure that is being proposed so that when we get to the Committee of the whole House, those who may have improvements can make them. Hon. Deputy Speaker, we said our governance system be it the presidency, Senators, governors, the 290 Members of Parliament who were elected from single member constituencies, or those who were nominated to represent particular interests including the county assemblies, everything that we do is a product of the electoral reforms that are announced by the IEBC. It is important for all of us to have faith in that institution. In the history of this country, most election panels, be it the selection panel for the Directorate of Public Prosecutions (DPP) or other offices, are domiciled in the Office of the President. In order for us to be seen to be fair, we are recommending that the budget and administration of the selection panels be domiciled in Parliament. Parliament has a bipartisan nature. It has the majority and the minority side. If they are domiciled in the presidency, there will be a perception that the people in the presidency will have an upper hand in terms of the selection and budget. For that Hon. Deputy Speaker, we urge this House to adopt the reforms contained in this amendment and to support the Report of the Departmental Committee on Justice and Legal Affairs Committee so that we may have an IEBC as soon as possible."},{"id":1411422,"url":"http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1411422/?format=json","text_counter":170,"type":"speech","speaker_name":"Kibwezi West, MCCP","speaker_title":"Hon. Mwengi Mutuse","speaker":null,"content":"I beg to support."},{"id":1411423,"url":"http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1411423/?format=json","text_counter":171,"type":"speech","speaker_name":"Hon. Deputy Speaker","speaker_title":"","speaker":null,"content":"The Hon. Member for Suba North, Hon. Millie Odhiambo."},{"id":1411424,"url":"http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1411424/?format=json","text_counter":172,"type":"speech","speaker_name":"Suba North, ODM","speaker_title":"Hon. Millie Odhiambo-Mabona","speaker":null,"content":" Thank you, Hon. Deputy Speaker for giving me this opportunity. I wish to thank the Departmental Committee on Justice The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor"},{"id":1411425,"url":"http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1411425/?format=json","text_counter":173,"type":"speech","speaker_name":"Suba North, ODM","speaker_title":"Hon. Millie Odhiambo-Mabona","speaker":null,"content":"and Legal Affairs for bringing this Bill and also for the Members who were involved in the National Dialogue Committee that has made certain recommendations. Hon. Deputy Speaker, I support but as I do so, I want to indicate that sometimes there is an advantage and disadvantage of serving in the House for a long time. Every electoral cycle we come back with amendments to the Elections Act. The reason we do that is because we never get it right. In every election cycle there is a problem. We need to interrogate the deeper issues that bedevil our electoral process. I said it yesterday and I repeat that I have written a book called Rig or be Rigged. In the book, as the title suggests, in the Kenyan elections, you either rig or you are rigged. We do not give any other option. Since we have that sort of mentality, we must always come back to try and get a fair system. Unless we get a third option which is elections that are done fairly above board, I will have to be chasing your bag, the way I was doing in Bomas of Kenya, to see whether you have hidden things in the bag or whether you are stealing our elections. It is actually very backward that we do not have that much faith. The system is structured in a way that we should not have faith. One of the things I said in my book is that our system of elections is nascent and many do that deliberately, both at the party level and at the national level because we do not want fair elections. We just want to ensure that the smartest, most crooked and moneyed person wins the elections. Therefore, the people who may win the elections fairly have to go a thousand extra miles to get there. Even though I support all these amendments that have been brought up, unless we change the reasons leading to these situations, which is our software, as individuals in this country, every election cycle, there will always be an amendment to the Elections Act. Right now, we are including the expansion of the panel which is a good thing for it to be more inclusive and also have the voice of the political players but that is not enough. I will go back to the thing that we need to change our own mindset as individuals and think about the legacy that we want to leave in this country for our children. Do we want our children, either pre- election to be fighting and be displaced depending on the alignments that are in this country every election cycle? So that if the alignments do not work ethnically, then there will be ethnic cleansing, killings and displacements or post-election violence where you see the number of people who are killed and shot by the police due to protest. Is that what we want as a country? We may be able to go through that process, but I do not think if that is something we would want to bequeath to our children and our grandchildren. Hon. Deputy Speaker, as I have said I support, but we really need to do a rethinking as a country?"},{"id":1411426,"url":"http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1411426/?format=json","text_counter":174,"type":"scene","speaker_name":"","speaker_title":"","speaker":null,"content":"[Hon. Deputy Speaker (Hon. Gladys Boss) left the Chair]"},{"id":1411427,"url":"http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1411427/?format=json","text_counter":175,"type":"scene","speaker_name":"","speaker_title":"","speaker":null,"content":"[The Temporary Speaker (Hon. Farah Maalim) took the Chair]"},{"id":1411428,"url":"http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1411428/?format=json","text_counter":176,"type":"speech","speaker_name":"Suba North, ODM","speaker_title":"Hon. Millie Odhiambo-Mabona","speaker":null,"content":"I would also want to speak on the issue of delimitation of the boundaries and the reason why we must have a commission in place. I notice we have changed the Chair. I do acknowledge you are no longer Hon. Deputy Speaker. Hon. Temporary Speaker, there are constituencies that are very fast growing in terms of population and consequently registered voters like in my constituency. I urge that due to that, we need a delimitation. My constituency is probably ripe for another constituency. The last time, our numbers did not constitute enough numbers for another constituency, but perhaps now we may probably have sufficient numbers. We need to look at that. Even when we are not looking at that, there are also other factors that are to be considered including community interest. Those are issues that apply for minority communities like the Subas. The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor"},{"id":1411429,"url":"http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1411429/?format=json","text_counter":177,"type":"speech","speaker_name":"Suba North, ODM","speaker_title":"Hon. Millie Odhiambo-Mabona","speaker":null,"content":"I am saddened that even for the speakers who are speaking here, we do not prime the issue of the two-thirds gender rule. Even in the NADCO Report, we have not primed it. We are an embarrassment in the region. That even countries that are still struggling have better gender representation in their parliaments. I do not know what happened to us as Kenyans. We are always challenged by people that we have very intelligent and strong women, but when it comes to representation, other countries are doing way much better than us. Let us give an example of our neighbour Tanzania. Their President, Hon. Speaker, their Hon. Majority Leader are all women. The numbers in Parliament are more than one third for the women representation. However, in Kenya all we can pride ourselves is speaking better English as if that is the measure of intelligence. Let us learn Kiswahili and English but, our greatest measure of intelligence is when we include women since they are a very great part of this country. That is when we should be priding ourselves as a country that we have made progress. We cannot be making progress in speaking a lot of English. There is another issue of concern that I have not seen us address here. We were very excited when we were saying that we are now bringing technology to our electoral process. Is Kenya really ready for a technological process in elections? Is Africa ready for a technological process in elections? I have been privileged to go to some countries as an election observer- I will not mention those countries now. Hon. Temporary Speaker, there are countries in Africa that we sit and go through the electoral process and there is no violence. People vote nicely and at the end, the results are announced after five or six days. The observers using the old technologies will come and declare that the process was free and fair and there was no violence. What violence do you expect in a computer system? I do not know the computer terminology, but I wish I knew. I do not know what will be fighting with the other in the computer. Is it a virus? Maybe there is a virus fighting the other for us to know that the process was not free and fair. One of the things that I wish and I do not want to delve into because we are progressing as a country... I do not want to go deep into that issue. I would want us as a country, if we really and truly want to forge ahead, to look at whether we are ready for technology. One of the countries that I went to had excellent elections. Ghana is touted as one of the best countries in Africa. During my visit there, the electoral process was open. People voted outside classrooms, and the results were counted in the open without the use of any technology. My concern is that technology provides a non-violent way of rigging, which is okay because many people do not lose their lives. However, this means that we are losing our democracy."},{"id":1411430,"url":"http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1411430/?format=json","text_counter":178,"type":"speech","speaker_name":"Suba North, ODM","speaker_title":"Hon. Millie Odhiambo-Mabona","speaker":null,"content":"I support this and thank the Committee for taking a step in the right direction. Nevertheless, we still have very serious issues in our electoral process that we need to deal with."}]}