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"id": 1443963,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1443963/?format=api",
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"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Sen. Okiya Omtatah",
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"content": "Mr. Speaker, Sir, I thank you for the opportunity to speak to this very important Motion. As I rise to speak, I first of all send my condolences to the families that lost loved ones. I also look at those who have lost livelihoods, and those who have been maimed. I hear this voice, the blood of the innocent that is crying out for justice on our streets. When in 2011, a group of Kenyans, including myself, peacefully occupied Jogoo House and evicted Prof. Ongeri, demanding that he accounts for Kshs4.6 billion that had been given to free primary education, the worst that was done to us is that non-state actors were hired to come and splash human faeces that had been made into a sludge. We were covered in human faeces. When we did not budge, they sent a contingent of the General Service Unit (GSU). After about three days, they arrested us, and we were taken to the Industrial Area, and we are alive today. By the way, the court acquitted us, I should say that. After the President addressed the nation on 25th June, claiming that criminals had invaded Parliament and staff, I took it upon myself to do a hostel crawl. I crawled across hostels in Nairobi at midnight to try and identify who these criminals were that the President was referring to. At the Mater Hospital, there were two people admitted with rubber bullet wounds, shot at point-blank range. At Mbagathi Hospital, they had treated more than 40 people for gunshot wounds and discharged them. At the Nairobi Hospital, two people were admitted. At Kenyatta National Hospital (KNH), I saw three bodies of dead people who were young people. Fifteen were in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) with gunshots on their heads. One hundred and forty eight were in the wards with multiple injuries to parts of the body. Among them was a young boy about 14 or 15 years, with a gunshot through the shoulder. I looked at these people and none of them was a criminal. Despite this, the President had gone on national television and claimed that criminals had come out, and that is why there was justification for the use of that force, and he said that at all costs, the force would be used. So, I see the blood of these children, the mayhem, and the amount of violence that was used here not justified at all. People cannot be killed under the Constitution of Kenya 2010 for exercising their rights. The right to life is a right that is protected in our Constitution. It begins at conception and ends at natural death. I have been to very many street demonstrations. The first thing that I noticed was out of character was the command structure of the police. I was able to identify some policemen walking alone, not accompanied, and I began wondering, is there a command structure? That was in the morning. So the question is, how was the police operation planned and conducted? Was there a central command? Who were the field commanders? Who were the sector commanders responsible for each section of the streets? How have they accounted for the deaths and injuries that happened in areas under their command? For the many times I went on the street to demonstrate, there could be policemen in civilian clothes, but they were never armed. The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Director, Hansard and AudioServices, Senate."
}