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{
    "id": 1072865,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1072865/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 39,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Cherargei",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13217,
        "legal_name": "Cherarkey K Samson",
        "slug": "cherarkey-k-samson"
    },
    "content": "us slept while standing for the first time for the whole day and night before we were arraigned in court. The four of us have shared ordeals of mistreatment and manhandling in the hands of the police and state agencies. Mr. Speaker, Sir, when did the knee-jerk directives from security heads in this country, and in particular the Cabinet Secretary (CS) of the Ministry of Interior and Coordination of National Government, Mr. Fred Matiang’i, the Director of Criminal Investigations, Mr. George Kinoti, The Inspector-General, Mr. Hillary Mutyambai replace the fundamental Bill of Rights guaranteed in the Constitution of Kenya? I have seen the protest by the Orange Democratic Party (ODM) against the frustrations that they are undergoing in Bonchari. It is exactly what we went through in Bungoma. Why should we allow the police to operate under instructions emanating from individuals to replace Article 29 (a) of the Constitution, which expressly prohibits arbitrary deprivation of freedom without a just cause? Mr. Speaker, Sir, the right to freedom is so fundamental that its deprivations should only be informed by concrete evidence read in presentation to a court of law. If an MP can be denied the right to speak to an advocate, to be released on police bond, the right to see a doctor, and is manhandled by enforcement officers, I can only imagine what the ordinary Kenyans go through in the hands of the Kenya Police Service (KPS). We transformed our enforcement agencies from force to service, but from the ordeals we underwent, we have not made any fundamental progress. We know that there is a loophole under Article 49 (f) (ii) being exploited by Kenyan police to hold a person for over 24 hours. Even after the detention, the state appeared in court to seek further detention to complete investigations. We need to pronounce ourselves that unless the state already has sufficient evidence to sustain a prosecution, nobody should be detained."
}