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{
"id": 195176,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/195176/?format=api",
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"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Mr. Githae",
"speaker_title": "The Assistant Minister, Office of the Deputy Prime Minister and Ministry of Local Government",
"speaker": {
"id": 159,
"legal_name": "Robinson Njeru Githae",
"slug": "robinson-githae"
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"content": " Thank you Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, for giving me this opportunity to make my contribution to this very important criminal procedure law. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, from the outset, I would like to commend the Attorney-General of the Republic of Kenya for coming up with this amendment. In my view, the amendment should have come yesterday. We should have passed it yesterday. All we are confirming is that we are about 50 years behind the other legal systems in other countries. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, plea-bargaining is not something new. I think every student of law is taken through a course on plea-bargaining. Unfortunately, it has had no legal outlet in this country. Its advantages are many. First of all, it reduces the time taken in trial. At the moment we have some murder cases that are as old as 15 years. I am told some take even longer. With plea-bargaining, it is possible to reduce the time taken to finalise a case. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, the other advantage of plea-bargaining is that it May 6, 2008 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 849 reduces the backlog in the court system. It will free the judges from some of their time, which can be spent on other cases. In my mind, I have no doubt that these amendments are necessary. They will bring our law into current use. They will bring our law to be in accordance with the practices of other legal systems of justice. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, the fears that have been expressed that there will be corruption between the prosecutor and the accused have been over-emphasised. If there is corruption, it will not be worse than any other that is already there. So, really those who are saying that this is just giving prosecutors another chance to line up their pockets are over stressing this fact. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, there are some standards that have been set by these amendments. In other institutions, these terms are not even there. It is left to the prosecutor and the accused person, or his or her lawyer, to enter into a plea bargain. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, plea-bargaining is not something new. In fact, it has been happening even in our court system, but informally. For example, you find that when somebody has been accused of murder, and there was no malice aforethought, then clearly it means that, although the person has killed another person illegally it does not amount to murder. For murder, there must be malice and aforethought."
}