Entry Instance

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

{
    "id": 1162471,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1162471/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 89,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Cheruiyot",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13165,
        "legal_name": "Aaron Kipkirui Cheruiyot",
        "slug": "aaron-cheruiyot"
    },
    "content": "The Inspector-General (IG) has his work cut out. Let the police officers do thorough investigation and not just rush to take the men to court. Let them do a good job. Many faces in that video are recognizable and people can point out and identify every one of them. Let each of those people who participated face the full force of the law. That video clip presents before us a unique challenge as policymakers. I remember towards the end of last year, the Presidents came to Muthurwa Market which is about one or two kilometers from here and launched something about boda boda registration. What became of that process? What did the Ministry of Transport, Infrastructure, Housing, Urban Development and Public works do? Did they bungle that project and await for this opportunity such that we are only getting kneejerk reactions? Unfortunately, I also watched Cabinet Secretary (CS) Dr. Matiangi speak about this issue earlier today and it is still not clear to me as a legislator and a representative of the people of what is expected of these individual boda boda operators. Many of the people who ply this trade are decent young men and women with families. This is their formal job and they do it with a lot of respect and dignity. They work extremely hard and pay a lot of taxes through fuel and licenses and all the regulatory clearances that they have to get. Therefore, we cannot in one swoop of condemnation paint them with one brush and refer to them as if they are a group of rowdy, useless people. There must be clear policy position of what is expected of them. If they are to be registered; by who? From where? And is there a course attached to it? We ask these questions because if we do not do that, then we are setting up our young men against our police officers-for them to be mob lynched and the excuse will be that the President has said we come after you. That is not what is expected of us who are in leadership when you are confronted with the kind of problem that we have today. This is a challenge that we deal with every day. Madam Temporary Speaker, I am sure you know. I do not know how it is in Kajiado County where you come from but if you ask many of us that come from the densely populated areas; those from Kisii County like my good neighbor, Sen. (Prof.) Ongeri, and the rest will tell you nowadays it is extremely difficult to hold functions because of these young men. They will follow you from one function to the other insisting on being given money and they are rowdy but it is still not an excuse for us to condemn them wholesomely. Can we get a clear policy position from the Ministry of Interior and Co-ordination of National Government on what is expected from these motorcyclist? As their leaders, we can assist them to comply. That is part of their work as well. We can do public training for them and let them be in the know of what is expected individually of them. We will tell them what the Government now expects of them as boda boda riders and inform them the of the mandatory documents. We will educate them on the offices that they are to visit to get the mandatory documents so that you do not run afoul of the law. In the absence of such a clear policy position, we will not have solved the problem. What we would basically do in our collective anger is to condemn them for a day or two and by next week, we will have moved on in typical Kenyan fashion to other more pressing issues, yet we know that this is a phenomenon that we need to address."
}