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{
    "id": 1095323,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1095323/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 182,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Mvita, ODM",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Abdullswamad Nassir",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 2433,
        "legal_name": "Abdulswamad Sheriff Nassir",
        "slug": "abdulswamad-sheriff-nassir"
    },
    "content": " Thank you very much, Hon. Speaker. I would like to express displeasure in the response. There is something I raised on 19th May 2021 and now we are in August. People have a constitutional right to demonstrate and picket. This is envisaged in the Constitution. The response that the CS in charge of security gave is that the Government has used the Public Order Act. There are measures outlined on how to handle peaceful demonstrations and allow freedom of expression. However, when you look at it, the Public Order Act, the position of Kenya... First of all, the rights in the Bill of Rights belong to an individual and are not granted by the State. That means that they are not a favour. Someone who wants to demonstrate and picket is not seeking favour from the State. It goes ahead to say that the Bill of Right applies to all and binds all State organs and all persons. Every person is equal before the law and has the right to equal protection and equal benefit of the said law. There are no limitations when it comes to matters to do with demonstrations and picketing unless they were propagating war. There was no one who ever propagated war. Unless there was incitement to violence, no one has ever incited violence. Unless there was hate speech, there has never been hate speech. There has never been advocacy of any form of hatred. These rights of fundamental freedoms in the Bill of Rights shall not be limited, except by law. The Constitution even goes ahead to give, from (a) to (e) – I will not read each one for purposes of time – the reasons that are supposed to be in that law. I have looked at the Public Order Act and there is nowhere at all that it has given that. I am only saying this: that it is not about demonstrations that were being done in Mombasa alone. Every single one of us needs to question this because people will be aggrieved and people will need to demonstrate. Whether it is the people of Pokot, Lamu, Kisumu, or Nyeri. In this instance it was the people of Mombasa. I hope that the security organs will follow the supreme law of this country. That is the Constitution of this country."
}