Entry Instance

HTTP 200 OK
Allow: GET, PUT, PATCH, DELETE, HEAD, OPTIONS
Content-Type: application/json
Vary: Accept

{
    "id": 1126163,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1126163/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 19,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. (Dr.) Ochillo-Ayacko",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "Mr. Speaker, Sir, Sen. Malalah has spoken about everything and anything communication. I want to thank you for the opportunity to speak on this very important topic. We are told that information is power. In order to access information and be powerful if information is power, then there must be a media or a medium through which we access such information. Information velocity in communities is passed through community radio stations. The important role community radio stations play in empowering people with knowledge cannot be over-emphasized. This is something we know, and this is something that we must jealously defend. In fact, in developed societies, you have freedom to be wrong. The content of information should not be criminalized and the content of information should not be punished. In fact, people should be encouraged to get to know what is correct and distinguish it from what is incorrect. The whole idea of having a regulatory framework is not to discourage the flow of information. It is supposed to encourage the orderly growth and enhance velocity of information that is consumed by our people. As this committee looks at what we have before us, I want the committee to find out how the regulatory authority is enhancing communication, enhancing the velocity of the information that is being circulated and not how it is clamping down on radio stations or how one thing is cannibalizing another thing. It is important to have a regulatory framework not to pamper our freedom of speech or our freedom of information but to regulate the way we promote the utilization of that freedom and to ensure that there are ethics and values that area protected within the environment that communication is shared. I hope that the committee will, when reporting, tell us whether there are mechanisms to have radio stations set up in every village. I am happy that we have a few in Migori. I am unhappy that there is no motivation or encouragement for people to open them up and I am happy that without a free and alternative way of consuming or receiving information, the society gets poorer. You get to do things the wrong way and get not to know what is available that could be of use to you. I want to thank the people of Laikipia. I want to thank the petitioner for raising this matter. I hope that the manner it will be resolved will increase velocity and intensity"
}