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{
    "id": 1382077,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1382077/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 247,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Okiya Omtatah",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "The time has come for us to come up with a law that will ensure animals are traceable to their owners. If you are coming to sell an animal, it should be possible to trace the owner of that animal at the point of sale. That might also help reduce the issue. There is a protocol for the prevention, combating and eradication of cattle rustling in East Africa. The last time I checked, only Uganda had signed that protocol. The protocol provides very good measures for containing cattle rustling across international borders and within the borders of our sovereign state such as Kenya. So, the failure to ratify this kind of protocol also tells us that we are not serious about eradicating cattle rustling. It is something that came up from the community and went beyond just the members of East African Community. It is about to cover 15 countries in the eastern region where cattle rustling is rampant. How serious is our Government; its commitment to ending this menace, when they cannot even sign protocols that are designed to tap into international networks to address this problem? Uganda has largely contained cattle rustling through brute force. When somebody picks up a gun to go to another community to rob, kill and spoil, he is not a man or woman to be handled with kids’ gloves. I doubt whether women are very active in that area although you have to be gender sensitive. In Uganda, for example, if you are arrested, you are court martialled because you are an armed combatant. They do not handle you with kid gloves. Secondly, the response of authorities is severe. The monopoly of violence must always stay with the State. I do not understand how the Kenyan State has lost the monopoly of violence in these areas where we have rampant cattle rustling. The other day I read in the newspaper that the Police Air Wing Helicopters had been grounded because of mismanagement and other things. So, the police can only walk. I would expect the police to be armed with helicopter gunships so that when there is an attack, they go spray the area with bullets. The state must maintain the monopoly of violence. However, the Kenyan State has chosen to handle this problem with kids’ gloves. It will be a situation whereby the elites and the people who control the deep state are the people who are behind the cattle. Otherwise, how do you steal almost a thousand heads of cattle and nobody sees them? It is practically impossible. I would expect a police air wing or armed with attack helicopters so that, when these people steal the animals, to go and shoot them together with the animals. If that is done two or three times, they will get scared. These kids’ gloves of making the CS for Interior and National Administration give threats through a soprano voice does not add up. His body language does not even convince you that the man is serious. Let us see action because the lives of Kenyans are being lost, their property destroyed and we cannot continue that way. The blame lies squarely on the Kenyan State. It cannot demonstrate any single action it has taken to demonstrate that when it comes to violence, we are the masters of violence. I do not see it. Unless we get to the point where The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposes only. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Director, Hansard Services, Senate."
}