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{
    "id": 1235320,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1235320/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 31,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "The Cabinet Secretary for Interior and National Administration",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "(Hon. (Prof.) Kindiki): Mr. Speaker, Sir, thank you for inviting me. It is a great honour and privilege for me to appear before this House. I have fond memories of the ten years I spent as a Member of this House. I feel honoured and gratified to be back. The only disadvantage is I cannot sit at the place where I used to sit. Other than that, I am happy to see old and new colleagues. Mr. Speaker, Sir, I will do my best to respond to the question raised by the distinguished Senator for Samburu County, Sen. Lelegwe as follows. On 13th of February this year, the Government of Kenya decided to deploy a joint operation for restoring normalcy in Samburu and four other counties in the Northern Rift Valley. This came after serious incidences of breach of peace. Therefore, it was required that the efforts of the National Police Service (NPS), which is the organ responsible for internal security, be augmented and supported by the Kenya Defence Forces (KDF) in accordance with our Constitution. Mr. Speaker, Sir, the Government had two options. One, to deploy the KDF to support the NPS pursuant to Article 241(3)(b), where the NPS is still in charge and leads the operation, but gets support from the KDF. That support is defined in the operational order agreed upon between the Inspector General of the NPS and the Chief of the Defence Forces. The second option which was available was to apply Article 241(3)(c), where the police would cede the way and allow the military to move in, restore peace, order, retreat back and allow the police to continue after the operation. It was decided that we apply 241(3)(b) first because the architecture of the Constitution envisages an escalation of measures where the Government intends to bring in the KDF. The intention of the framers of the Constitution is first to escalate the deployment gradually. If the police require the KDF inputs, then that input comes under paragraph (b), and if there is need to escalate it to paragraph (c), then that would come as a consequence later on. That is why we took that approach. Mr. Speaker, Sir, the status of security in Samburu County since the deployment of the military to assist the police has improved tremendously. The situation has improved from what was the case before the operation was declared. We immediately identified certain parts of Samburu County and the other four counties which were being used to hold or/and hide bandits. We asked members of the public to vacate from those places. For the information of the House, these are not habitual places of residence. In fact, the mischief we were trying to cure is that we had established that after stealing livestock, these bandits would retreat to very remote caves and gorges, which are not places of habitual residence. They would hide there, survey and try to track what the rest of our agencies and the public were doing and plan for attacks from there. They had invited what we considered, perhaps, members of their families. So, we established their women and children were holed up in those caves and gorges. That is why we gave the"
}