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{
    "id": 1561394,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1561394/?format=api",
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    "content": "the matter brought to the Floor by Hon. Bashir is a critical national matter that we need to prosecute with sobriety as Kenyans. No Member would rise on the Floor of this House to support atrocities by any uniformed officer against our citizens. In fact, we are not here to say whether the Kenyan Defence Forces (KDF) have done right or wrong. It is not in our place to judge them. However, it is not lost to my mind that in the last Parliament, this House declined to accede to the renewal of the terms of service and the terms of training of the British Army Training Unit in Kenya (BATUK). When we refused to sign up and regularise the BATUK’s presence in Kenya, we took a hit as a House. However, in the 13th Parliament, we passed that the BATUK can practise and train on our mother soil. That came with a very serious rider. This House resolved that if any British Army officer were to commit a crime in Kenya, they would be tried here. The BATUK is known to have killed our people. They are known to have raped our women. Also, they are known to have maimed our people, not to forget their serious environmental degradation. We understand that the BBC is funded by taxpayers' money in Britain, meaning that the BBC is funded to push the foreign agenda of the British people internationally. We must know whether the BBC is speaking as a mouthpiece of the Government and the people of Britain, or what it is doing. Could it be an attempt to arm-twist this country so that we can rescind the rider that we put on their training of the BATUK in Kenya and perpetuate a history of extractive, oppressive and exploitative economy in a very unfair trade balance between Kenya and the United Kingdom (UK)? Even as we debate this matter, it is not lost to us that there were unfavourable events at the time that led up to the Finance Bill, but that is not what we are debating. We would like to know for a fact whether what the BBC is airing is connected to the riders that this House put on the training of the BATUK where we require that if any British army officer is found to have killed, maimed, or raped in Kenya, they be tried on our mother soil as it would happen to a Kenyan found guilty of a criminal offence in the UK. We need these issues clarified to Kenyans. We know many issues have happened in the UK and elsewhere, but they did not get the media presence we see being put on the issue about the KDF. 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."
}