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{
    "id": 133196,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/133196/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 198,
    "type": "other",
    "speaker_name": "",
    "speaker_title": "",
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    "content": "Criminal gangs have continued to pose a challenge to peace and tranquility in certain regions of this country, especially Central Province, part of Rift Valley Province, Eastern Province, the informal settlement in Nairobi and other urban areas. The activities of these gangs have led to fear, destruction of property, extortion and loss of lives of both the civilian population and the security agents. I wish to assure hon. Members that the Government will not relent in its efforts to crack down on these gangs. Adequate machinery has already been put in place to deal with this situation. However, I would like to inform this august House that I will be tabling the Organized Crime Bill in this House soon. I hope that when it will be tabled hon. Members will examine it very carefully so that this time round we will have an Act of Parliament on organized criminal gangs. With regard to the conflict arising from boundary disputes and land ownership, the Government formed the Mt. Elgon and the Tharaka/Tigania/Meru Task Force to work with the community leaders so as to resolve the long standing disputes which have disrupted normal socio-economic activities in the affected areas. The current Estimates have provided funds under the Recurrent Vote amounting to Kshs31,548,520 to cater for the two task forces. In addition, a sum of Kshs180 million has also been provided under the Development Vote to be used for the purchase of land to settle genuine landless people who will now be accommodated in the Chebyuk Free Settlement Scheme in Mt. Elgon. At this stage, I would like to mention some other strategic interventions that the Ministry has put in place. These include capacity building; community policing; provision of specialist equipment; transport and housing. With regard to capacity building, the programme for the extension of training institutions will be undertaken in order to facilitate the training of new recruits and the mounting of specialized programmes such as scientific investigation techniques, crime scene management and the detection and investigation of cyber crime. The police have also increased the annual intake of recruits to serve both the general duties and specialized units. Our long-term objective is to improve the current police/population ratio as recommended by the United Nations (UN) which stands at 1:450. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, hon. Members are aware that since 2003, the Government embraced community policing as a core crime prevention strategy. The strategy seeks to encourage partnership between security agencies and the beneficiary communities in crime prevention. These programmes which are spread across the country are continually being reviewed. In addition, deliberate action will be taken to ensure that the process of re-building the mutual trust and partnership with communities is carried out in a structural and sustained manner. Therefore, a sum of Kshs120 million has been allocated for this programme in the current financial year. In order to improve the response capacity of the police force, a programme for the acquisition of modern equipment for our security agents is on-going. A sum of Kshs1.3 billion has been allocated in this financial year to facilitate the purchase of additional communication and other security equipment including the completion of the automated palm and finger print identification system project and other components of the forensic laboratory for the Criminal Investigations Department (CID). This system will speed up the search, analysis and retrieval of fingerprints, besides putting in place an electronic data base of criminal record. The system will also"
}