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{
    "id": 1151395,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1151395/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 310,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Pareno",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13180,
        "legal_name": "Judith Ramaita Pareno",
        "slug": "judith-ramaita-pareno"
    },
    "content": "it was affected by the court ruling and it has therefore come back for reprocessing. I hope that we will process it within the time that is remaining for this Senate. Mr. Speaker, Sir, I beg to move that the National Cohesion and Peace Building Bill (Senate Bills No.19 of 2021) be now read a Second Time. When I first moved this Bill that was the time that we had the Building Bridges Initiative (BBI) starting the proceedings led by the late Sen. Haji. It was relevant at that time and it is still relevant at this time especially now that we are moving to elections. This Bill is about peace, cohesion, one nation and our togetherness as a nation. Mr. Speaker, Sir, the National Cohesion and Integration Act that is in existence has had issues in its application and needed to be amended. However, we moved in and had stakeholders discussions. It was agreed that instead of the amendment I proposed in this Bill that we repeal and replace it with this current Bill as now drawn from consultations from all stakeholders including the Directorate of National Cohesion and Values that is housed at the Presidency. We then have the several stakeholders, the secretariat, the National Cohesion and Integration Commission (NCIC) and the National Commission on Human Rights(NCHR) and others who have contributed to enriching this Bill. There are issues that this Bill seeks to bring forth. First, there seems to be a very active Directorate under the President’s Office that deals with peace alone. Then we have the NCIC that deals with issues integration and cohesion. Indeed, you will find that there is always peace building. At the time we were discussing with the NCIC, they were lamenting that they are underfunded because the Directorate is more funded. The Directorate is usurping the powers that, if we were to strictly follow our Constitution, it should be under the NCIC. We thought we could cure that using this Bill. This Bill seeks to justify that you cannot separate peace building and cohesion and integration unless you just do not want to have the Commission working. One of the proposals in this Bill is to cure that so that we have all issues of peace, integration and cohesion housed under this law and not having one arm at the Directorate and another arm at the Commission. It also seeks to sort out the issue of the budget where a lot of budget goes to the Directorate while the Commission is just staying idle without work. To me, the Directorate cannot be superior to a constitutional Commission. If only we can cure that using this Bill if it passes, that would actually respect the provisions of our Constitution that brought forth commissions that were to settle a lot of issues such as cohesion in this country. This Bill therefore seeks to make it easier for us to run the Commission smoothly and to have all issues of peace and integration under one roof. This Bill also seeks to give more teeth to the NCIC, giving them funding, bringing all their activities under one umbrella. At the same time making provisions for them to be able to make use of the provisions of the Act to punish the offenders. Most of the time, we just have complaints about hate speech and discrimination but all the can do is just talk about it. At most, they are not able to move forth to ensure that people are punished for their wrongs."
}