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{
"id": 106255,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/106255/?format=api",
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"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Mr. Affey",
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"speaker": {
"id": 381,
"legal_name": "Mohammed Abdi Affey",
"slug": "mohammed-affey"
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"content": "23 Thursday, 8th April, 2010(P) activities go against the very fundamental principles of the Bill of Rights relating to the right to life and the right to own property. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, in 1970, the then Attorney-General moved the Bill before a very hostile Parliament. Indeed, the House was almost divided as to whether to enact this law, because this law is retrogressive. It attempts to shield Government officials even when they know what they have done is truly illegal, and that it goes against the Constitution that we have. The Kenya Colonial Government enacted several laws that targeted northern Kenya and part of Coast Province. In 1902, the Outlying Ordinance Act, which declared the Northern Frontier districts of Wajir, Mandera, Garissa, Ijara, Isiolo, Marsabit, Moyale, Tana River and Lamu closed areas, was enacted. Movement into those places was only possible under a very special pass. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, in 1934, the Special District Ordinance Act, together with the Stock Theft Produce Ordinance of 1933, gave the colonial administrators extensive powers to arrest, detain, restrain and seize property. There is so much background to the Indemnity Act, with similar laws having been passed as early as 1933 by the colonial Government. This legalised what today we collectively call âcollective punishment of tribes and clansâ. This law, together with the laws that were replaced even before we got our Independence, kind of institutionalised the culture of collective punishment such that if a criminal in a certain community or clan commits an act that is illegal in law, the entire community suffers for it. This policy of collective punishment is with us to date. The net effect of this attitude towards northern Kenya, therefore, was to punish it into a closed zone. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, the history behind the Indemnity Act is best captured by an American writer called Negly Pearson, who, in one of his publications, says:- âThere is one half of Kenya about which the other half knows nothing about and actually seems to care less.â"
}