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{
    "id": 106260,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/106260/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 291,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Mr. Affey",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 381,
        "legal_name": "Mohammed Abdi Affey",
        "slug": "mohammed-affey"
    },
    "content": "Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, the effect of the Indemnity Act is very clear – to discriminate against people in a section of the country, in the areas I have mentioned, and yet the Constitution protects those areas. It is apparent, therefore, that the Government then, in defiance of the Constitution, continued to bulldoze, through Parliament, a law that in its nature discriminates against Kenyans. As I said, the Indemnity Act is flagrant in disregard of the current Constitution. It provides immunity from prosecution. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, in Kenya today, security officers are regulated by the rule of law. They cannot apply their own law. If they violate the basic freedoms of an individual, that individual has the right to seek legal redress before a court of law. The Indemnity Act denies Kenyans in the areas I have mentioned an opportunity to seek legal redress. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, we are going through a reform process. I am happy that we are looking for a new constitutional dispensation. The draft we have now, which will be subjected before a referendum, has got very specific sections in the Bill of Rights that will never allow any security officer or Government official to violate the basic rights of any Kenyan. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, the spirit of this Act was limited to the period 1964 to 1967. This was a period when parts of this country were under very serious threats from security officers, who were in search of insurgents. There was collective punishment in the North Eastern Province, whether you were a sympathizer, or otherwise, just because the insurgents happened to either look like you or speak the same language as you. The spirit of the Indemnity Act, which applied to the period between 1964 and 1967 was used, for instance, in Garissa in 1980. For those of us who might have witnessed this, you will know that in 1980 in Garissa, in a place called Bulakartasi Estate, there was a huge massacre of Kenyans. Over 3,000 Kenyans lost their lives. The same number of Kenyans could not be accounted for. The same number of Kenyans might have lost their livestock and became poor in the process, because the security organs then were reacting to a situation where some of its officers were involved in skirmishes with the insurgents."
}