NAIROBI, Kenya Dec 30 – Members of Parliament supportive of the Handshake sat into the early hours of Thursday to approve a proposal in the Political Parties (Amendment) Bill which gives the Registrar of Political Parties powers to decline to register a slogan for use by a political party if in the agency’s view it is against public interest or national security.
In a late night sitting, 102 MPs voted to approve Clause 7 of the Political Parties (Amendment) Bill, 2021.
Only 15 MPs were on hand to vote against it.
A section of MPs, mainly allied to Deputy President William Ruto, walked out of the debating chamber even though the voting was in underway.
This came moments after Garissa Township MP Aden Duale and Nominated MP David Sankok requested the Temporary Speaker Soipan Tuya to give guidance on whether the Special Sitting was still in order after voting went past midnight.
Soipan cited relevant Standing Orders which allows the House to sit until it concludes voting on a matter that has been presented for determination.
Duale, who had earlier led the Tanga Tanga MPs in using all manner of tactics to delay voting and the conclusion of the matter, was furious with the parliamentary sergeant at arms for allowing MPs to leave the Chamber despite it being against the Standing Orders which require MPs to remain inside the Chamber until voting is determined.
The Sergeant at Arms could be heard saying that the MPs “forced the doors open”.
Kandara MP Alice Wahome had earlier seen her attempt to delete the clause shot down after 148 MPs voted against it, while 126 voted in favour.
She said the clause posed a restriction to all political parties to have a slogan such as tibim-tialala, hustler, kazi ni kazi, azimio, orange etc.
“We have seen a tendency to abuse, to frustrate some political parties, giving some advantage to some political parties and ensure other parties don’t have the same freedom,” she said.
The Kandara MP insisted that the clause is calculated and is targeting some political parties.
“Political parties are known to use different slogans and the restriction may not be necessary, it is going to be cumbersome, it is not conducive to democratic space,” Wahome started.
Garissa Township MP Aden Duale said he supported Wahome’s amendment stating that the clause in its current form is very retrogressive and is subject to abuse.
“The powers given to the RPP in making a decision on the slogan of a political party when it comes to registration and using the statement of public interest which has not been defined, in my opinion is retrogressive and is unconstitutional,” he said.
Majority Leader Amos Kimunya (Kipipiri) who is the sponsor of the Amendment Bill accused Wahome of misleading the House.
He explained that the objective of the Bill is to expand powers that the Office of the Registrar of Political Parties already has in determining whether a party name or symbol/slogan is obscene, offensive or is similar to that of another party.
“We must protect that people should not use parties or symbols to ignite things that have been prescribed in law or to bring things in public interest, like I remember there is somebody who brought something called the Placenta Party, things that are against morality and public interest,” Kimunya noted.
Ugunja MP Opiyo Wandayi termed Wahome’s amendment as superfluous and urged his colleagues to vote to reject it.
“There is absolutely no reason to attempt to define public interest because public interest is just public interest. Indeed it is a matter of commonsense. For instance if someone came up with a slogan that threatens national security, do you want to ask the Registrar of Political Parties whether that is allowable or not,” Wandayi said.
