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{
    "id": 1057774,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1057774/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 116,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Homa Bay Town, ODM",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Peter Kaluma",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 1565,
        "legal_name": "George Peter Opondo Kaluma",
        "slug": "george-peter-opondo-kaluma"
    },
    "content": " Thank you, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker. I would also like to thank my Chair for ably moving this important Bill. The matter of narcotic drugs has been an issue in our country and across the world for a long time. It has been so much that we even have United Nations conventions and conventions within our own continent dealing with the matter. We have had this law for a very long time. Our societies are still being destroyed. If you go to the Coast and several other places such as the frontier counties in the north, drugs are decimating our societies. If you remember, the main reason why President Trump was elected was because he said he would build a wall between the United States of America (USA) and Mexico, because drugs were destroying their society. The people supported him. Having analysed the situation as the departmental committee in charge and looked at the law, we found up to six gaps which we seek to have this House seal so that we can bring a stop to this matter. First, we are looking at the punishment regime for trafficking. If you look at the current law, option is given to traffickers to either pay fines or face life imprisonment. It has, therefore, become very easy, more so, for big or bulk traffickers - people who can have a whole ship of cocaine - to come and pay three times the value of that amount and escape being jailed. In this Bill, we propose that life imprisonment shall be mandatory for a convicted trafficker, in addition to a fine amounting to three times the value of the drugs he is found with. Why do we say so? The previous law meant that the consumers would suffer more than the traffickers. The other distinction we are making in terms of that charge is that, even if you are found with the drugs, under the current framework around punishment, whether you are holding them or just consuming, the punishment is one, in the manner I have spoken to."
}