Mr. Speaker Sir, Thank you very much for this opportunity.
Ladies and gentlemen, members of this August house, It is not every day in Kenya that we get an opportunity to address such a historic body. A body made “Historic” by the great men and women that have passed through these doors over the years. Men and women, borne of the unique honor to represent the people of Kenya, whether young or old, poor or wealthy, privileged or oppressed, or as has recently come to be, Jubilee or CORD.
I come to you today, as a proud son of Malindi constituency in Kilifi County, proud of my heritage but burdened by the history of my people. Elated at our victory, but laden by the unfortunate circumstances that accompanied my ascension to this house. Circumstances of which I hope, this body shall allow me to address in further detail later, and propose some corrective measures during this speech.
I would first like to thank the Almighty God, for having seen us through this journey. The bible in Mathew 11;28 says, “Come to me, all ye who are weary and heavily laden, and I will give you rest”. We put our faith in God and he has been faithful to us as well.
I would also like to express my profound appreciation to the people of Malindi, for turning out in large numbers and voting to appoint me as their representative in this house. Many were called, but in the end there was one. I would like to invite my worthy adversaries, to join me in building the lives of our people. We shall have another opportunity to compete in a few months, but for now, lets work together.
As a candidate and now legislator, I remain indebted to the leadership of my party – the Orange Democratic Movement. I am here not only to advocate for the interests of my people in Malindi, but to push and promote the policies of ODM. This, I promise I will do without fear or favor. I will guard the noble legacy of the Orange Movement; that is Devolution, the Constitution of Kenya, and fight against injustice & inequality…as demanded for by the people of Kenya.
Individually, I would like to express my sincerest gratitude to my party leader, the Rt. Hon. Raila Odinga. I would like thank him for the tireless effort in my campaigns. I would like to tell him that no amount of distortion, persecution, and historical revisionism, shall erode your contribution to making Kenya what it is today. As a member of the movement, we shall stand steadfast in seeing our dream realized.
I would also like to thank my CORD principals, H.E. Kalonzo Musyoka and the Hon. Moses Wetang'ula, for the support they gave me. Our coalition would not be the same without you, please accept my gratitude.
I also want to thank my friend Governor Amason Kingi of our beloved Kilifi County, I look forward to developing jointly some policies and programs that will be helpful to the people of Malindi, asante sana.
I particularly would like to personally thank Mombasa Governor Ali Hassan Joho. It was a pleasure working with you. I also would like to tell you to stand strong. That truth, courage and justice, weathers all storms. We in ODM, being the party borne of constitutional agitation, recognize that all this amounts to modern day persecution.
As citizens of this great nation of Kenya, we all have the right to administrative action that is expeditious, efficient, lawful, reasonable and procedurally fair, according to Article 47 (1) and (2) of the Constitution of this country. This is a constitutional test, that the Cabinet Minister of the Interior and the Inspector General have failed, so completely and miserably. It is hardly reasonable, nor fair, to consider temperament as the basis for adverse administrative action. To the best of my knowledge, that is the preserve of psychiatrists not soldiers. Discretion does not mean power; it lives within the confines of good judgment.
To both of them, I realize that you are children of a different time and products of a different dispensation, but I would like to remind you both, that the old days are gone, and gone forever. This country shall NEVER go backwards. Liberty once achieved shall be guarded by generations to come.
I remain thankful to all those that helped me to this house. Though it is not possible to mention you all by name, I thank you all.
I would wish to address the electoral conduct of this by-election. A lot has been said about Malindi. People that do not understand the culture and people of Malindi have drowned out the truth. We are a peaceful, polite and courteous community, but a dark shadow was cast over Malindi in the days leading up to and on March 7th 2016. A style and streak of politics that has never before been seen in the constituency was prevalent during the electoral period.
I would first like to address the conduct of the security services. There were wanton cases of misconduct by the security services during the just concluded Malindi by-election on March 7th 2016.
1. The security services participated in voter intimidation that contributed to the low 48% electoral turnout. The Elections Act of Kenya, No 24 of 2012, Part VI 65 (3) describes as an election offense, the use of force or threat of personal injury in order to induce or compel a person to vote in a particular way or refrain him/her from voting. The actions of the police and the provincial administration amount to a contravention of electoral law.
2. The deployment of the military within Kenya’s borders without National Assembly approval is in full breach of Article 241 of the constitution of Kenya. The interior ministry, upon which the Cabinet Secretary administers, therefore acted in direct contravention of the constitution from which they draw their legitimacy. The well documented deployment, on social media and elsewhere, of the Military to polling stations like Barakani Primary School and Armed Personnel Carriers (APCs) to the Tally center, amount to a direct constitutional contravention. These were not
3. The police participated in arbitrary arrests like that of ODM communications director Phillip Etale and Kwale County Assembly Member Kassim Pojjo amongst many others, without a guiding incident, a police charge, an arrest warrant or a complainant. These arrests were interestingly only implemented on members of the opposition until our direct intervention.
4. The police displayed obvious favoritism by failing to act on state agents and people affiliated to the ruling coalition in obvious voter bribery cases. The ones who were arrested were for their protection from a dissenting public and not for further prosecution. They were also un-procedurally released from custody.
5. Most bizarrely, the security services resorted to calling press statements enumerating leaders they would like to arrest. We consider this a form of intimidation.
6. There were also cases of the use of live ammunition and crowd dispersion techniques like tear gas in completely unwarranted scenarios. These merit at least an internal enquiry.
I would like to urge the Cabinet Secretary to conduct an audit and present a report for debate this house over the conduct of security services in these elections. It is a worrying trend.
I would wish to remind him of the personal responsibility standard of international statutes that befell his security predecessors. I would urge him to do all that is within his capacity to reform the conduct of the services before the next general election.
As for the IEBC, Your preparedness is increasingly becoming a matter of concern. Your recurrent inability to conduct an election and deliver a free and fair result is worrying. The IEBC did not document and take action on obvious cases of voter bribery and intimidation. They haven’t made a written complaint to the EACC, the DPP or the Police of the same. They did not address the role of security services in the polling stations. They haven’t addressed the missing names from the register and hiccups in the voting process especially technology failures. Most importantly, they have not elaborated the reasons why a county with over five times the voters in Malindi delivered a result faster than Malindi on elections held concurrently.
Our party leader has on many occasions outlined the reasons we feel this commission lacks the organizational and personnel capacity to deliver a fair result. Until now, almost four years after the last general election, the IEBC still has not done and presented an audit of the previous election.
It launched its strategic plan without the input of the stakeholders that are the political parties. Officials that have been named as counter parties in corruption by the Serious Fraud Office of the United Kingdom still hold office in Kenya where their partners in crime are serving sentences in England.
Our previous attempts to reform electoral management in Kenya through the OKOA reforms has been frustrated by claims of a lack of budget to verify signatures delivered over half a year ago. Our march today was to determine what is the problem and to put pressure for constitutional compliance to the commission.
The obviously skewed distribution of registration materials nationally is evidence of a further lack of will or outright dishonesty. The miserable failure to hit registration targets is now apparent to everyone in this country. This demonstrates a serious lack of capacity to successfully implement their programs.
After observing the events in Malindi, I would like to join the ODM family in registering our lack of confidence in the electoral commission. We do not trust them to deliver a completely free and fair general election.
I want to make a few promises to my people; my leadership and representation will be based on zero tolerance to corruption, a focus on the welfare of the people and the irreversible commitment to the elements of good governance.
It is my intention to prioritize land reform, to eliminate exploitation of indigenous coastal communities by tourism and manufacturing companies; to expand education opportunities for the youth of Malindi and to fight for improved devolution. I shall also use this platform to fight against ills that affect our people such as child prostitution, drug abuse and trafficking in Malindi. Meanwhile, I will join my party with a lot of zeal in fighting institutionalized grand corruption under this jubilee government.
For the residents of Malindi, the Coast and the beautiful Nation of Kenya, I would like to urge you to be strong, to be resilient and to carry the message of hope and courage to every corner of this nation. Most importantly, trust in God. For it is only he, that decides our fate. Every generation has to live with its challenges, the right honorable Raila Odinga and other gallant citizens have borne the greatest burden to deliver democracy to this beautiful land, it is the challenge of our generation to preserve it. Be vigilant, We will do our part. “Eternal Vigilance is the price of liberty ” – Thomas Jefferson.
May God bless you all.
