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{
    "id": 1226541,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1226541/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 340,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Kilifi North, UDA",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Owen Baya",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": " Hon. Temporary Speaker, I would like to state this, as we read Article 37, we should never read it selectively. Article 37 is very clear. It says— “Every person has the right, peaceably and unarmed, to assemble, to demonstrate, to picket, and to present petitions to public authorities”. On the 20th, we saw an army that was invading Nairobi. People were in military fatigues camouflaging themselves not as demonstrators, not as picketers but people whose only intention was to go to State House and evict the President of this Republic of Kenya. Those people are economic saboteurs in this country. They want to evict a sitting President who has been elected and put in office by this Constitution. I want to tell whoever wants to do that; it will not happen in this country because the police will protect the President of the Republic of Kenya. That is what they peaceably did that day! We saw people in Kibera and other parts of the country carrying stones and throwing them at the police. Those are not peaceful demonstrators as expected by the Constitution. We saw people who were armed and were approaching the police. The police were stationed there to ensure that they give people an opportunity to picket. The President said very well, whoever wants to picket, whoever wants to demonstrate should call the police officers, sit down and have a plan on how that demonstration was going to be done. We did not see the organisers of the demonstration do that. Instead, they gathered themselves, put in some new military uniform, came out and said they wanted to overthrow the Government. The police are here to ensure they maintain peace. One of the things they do is to protect the democratic rights of Kenyans enshrined in this Constitution. The police also want to protect the sovereignty of this state. They were protecting the sovereignty of this nation against people whose only idea was that they can never lose an election. Every time they lose an election, they think that election has been stolen. The same people want to hold this country to ransom. After every election they must cause chaos for them to be heard. This President has made it very clear; they can make noise; they can do the demonstrations but there will be no handshake. If they cannot hear me now, they will hear me latter because I will still say the same thing: There will be no handshake. They destroyed property in this Central Business District (CBD). A few people were charged for inciting speeches that had been made. They know nothing else in this country apart from inciting the public. They destroyed property here. We saw a group of young people pull out a rail and threw it on the road. We saw a group of young people pelt buildings in this city. We saw a group of people who wanted to attack Supreme Court. What were the police supposed to do? To stop it. How were they going to stop it? The best way they could. What happens to the economy of this country? Today tourists that were in Malindi and Kilifi left. They went back and said they will never come to this country. We lost revenue in Watamu, in the Coast region because of these demonstrations. Today investors leave this country every day… The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor."
}