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"content": "As the Minister who is in charge of internal security and the police, I have looked at the working conditions of the police and I know where they live, I know what they earn and I have to be clear and state this message clearly. Once a person is employed as a police officer, his starting salary is Kshs11,000 per month. This is very little. You then go and look at the living conditions of these people, they have got families and children who are at school. These people are expected to work 24 hours a day and yet we say we have got to pay them just like the ordinary civil servants. The ordinary civil servant reports to work at 8.00 oâclock and they have a lunch break. They leave their offices at 5.00 oâclock and work for five days. Police officers are expected to work for 24 hours, seven days a week. They have been exposed to major risks. We need to establish a task force to go and check exactly what needs to be done so that we have motivated force. We want police officers who can do their work without asking for bribes. That is the only way to zero in on them. How many people think in terms of making sure that these people have certain things so that we can lean on them? Use the carrot and stick and get rid of the rotten ones. How are we going to have security if the people that we depend on for our own security do not have enough money to feed themselves and their families? That should trouble our conscience, we, as leaders in this country. Yes, this is an important Bill and we want to pass it to deal with organised crimes. There are many cartels in this country. Those cartels are the ones which are destroying fair competition in business as such it is hard for it to grow. Those are the ones who are deterring major investors from coming and putting their resources here. So if you employ somebody as a police officer and then you pay him Kshs11,000 a month and somebody else comes and offers him Kshs50,000, he will think twice and say: âOh, yes, let me be caught and go to hell, but at least, I want my family to get some food.â I am not defending the corrupt police officers. We are determined to remove them from the force. I am determined to carry our major reforms, I am determined that we have the best police force here but that will cost money. To reform the police, we are going to pay. If we think that reforming the police is expensive, then you try crimes and see what happens to the country. So that is what it means and my appeal is that this country has the potential abroad and it is a country respected all over internationally because the Kenyan people are resourceful. Indeed, in the entire continent, I do not think you have more hard working people than the Kenyans. They are the most industrious people. It is true. Whether it is in agriculture, whether it is in business, whether it is profession; if you go to South Africa, you will find Kenyans there working in the banks and the medical services. If you go to the universities, they are there. Kenyans are working in every southern African country as professionals. We have them in Tanzania and Uganda. If you go into the hospitality industry, you will find that Kenyans are managing important hotels in West Africa and even in Europe. How many Kenyans do we have even in industrialized countries and they are all professionals? I think it is high time we also started knowing that we have moved far ahead than other countries. However, we need to sort out some few issues properly and security is one of them. We have also got to ensure that security comes along with responsibilities. The careless utterances we also make are amazing. So I want to assure the hon. Members that at the Committee Stage, we will introduce the amendments they have proposed. Indeed it was stated by my own Assistant Minister that one day we are going to deal with the merchants of arms and weapons and"
}