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{
    "id": 1226461,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1226461/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 260,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Ugunja, ODM",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Opiyo Wandayi",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": " Thank you, Hon. Temporary Speaker. Let me start by reminding our friends that in this country there are people who perhaps have not yet internalised the import of our very progressive Constitution, 2010. They are perhaps living in the past. The provisions of Article 37 of our Constitution are so clear and unambiguous that they require no further interpretation. Even a lay person would tell you that that Article of the Constitution gives Kenyans unfettered rights to demonstrate, picket and express themselves in whichever way they want. Therefore, any other statute law or edict by whomever, including the police service that purports to suspend or otherwise deny the enjoyment of the right enshrined in Article 37 of the Constitution is unconstitutional, null and void ab initio. Moreover, even if there was any element of illegality in the mass action of Monday, 20th March 2023, it is not for the National Police Service (NPS) or any other person to proclaim that illegality. The NPS and the Nairobi Regional Police Commander Adamson Bungei has no authority whatsoever under the Constitution to declare any meeting or any mass action illegal. If he felt that the mass action was illegal, the best thing was to go to court and seek appropriate orders. Therefore, that is why I have said that there are still people who are living in the past in the country. These are basically the KANU and Nyayo era hangovers which have taken too long to be shed off. Therefore, I submit that the Monday event was totally, properly, and legally constitutional. The mass action only turned violent because of the violent intervention of the police. For this, we must hold the police officers and those who sent them liable and accountable. We must now set a precedent that in this country if you cause a violation of the law in the manner the police did on Monday, you must be held to account at a personal level. Now, on behalf of the Azimio la Umoja-One Alliance Coalition, we gave a 14 days’ notice with specific conditions to be met. At the expiry of that notice, there was no response and therefore we commenced the mass actions. Those conditions are, one, if you insist you won, open the servers for Kenyans to see for themselves."
}