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"id": 19543,
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"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Mr. Mungatana",
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"speaker": {
"id": 185,
"legal_name": "Danson Buya Mungatana",
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"content": "Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, first of all, I want to say that I am very happy with this Bill. Prof. Saitoti and Mr. Ojode have been very consistent and serious about these police reforms. They have been able to bring their Bills before this House. Everything that is good can be improved. I wanted to start with this moot point about the county governments and the role that they need to play in the new administration of the Constitution. Clause 3 of this Bill talks about the headquarters of the Independent Policing Oversight Authority (IPOA) to be in the capital city of Kenya and the Authority to devolve its services to the counties in accordance with Article 6 of the Constitution. That is all they have talked about as far as the counties are concerned. I want to propose that when Government Minister’s bring these kinds of Bills, they should think through some of these things. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, who are the people who suffer the most abuse? The people who suffer the most abuse from the police are the people in rural areas. Here in Nairobi you can run to a lawyer or to a senior police officer. In Mombasa you can get a senior police officer and they can help you. You can run to another Government officer who can assist you. However, out there in the rural areas, it is very difficult. That is where this IPOA is required. It is not enough to say that you shall just devolve this Authority in accordance with the counties. We need to bring more clauses here in terms of appointment of the offices that will be operating in the county. I want the Minister to go and think about it. We can think about this together; the people who will be receiving complaints in the counties. Let us be very practical. In the county you have, for example, the Officer Commanding Police Division (OCPD). The OCPD is in charge of his officers there. Now, we want to have an equivalent person who will be receiving complaints of those misdeeds of his officers. Who will be appointing that officer? Is it, again, Nairobi to do the same thing? Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I propose that the governors must have a hand in appointing some members of this Authority at the county level so that these people can be able to truly report. In reality, it will be the same issue; the OCPD will be working with the person who has been appointed from Nairobi to receive complaints against the police. This person will probably be junior to the OCPD and in most cases, they will be able to hide those reports. This behaviour of protecting each other is there in the rural areas. Mr. Ojode, in his many travels across the country, should know that the police would protect their own. It is only normal; I would want to protect lawyers if I can and colleagues in this House if they have a problem. Therefore, we need somebody else who is outside that system, who can appoint someone who can genuinely receive complaints and say: “This and this officer has been harassing us”. I need us to think about who will manage the county reporting desks. Secondly, these complaints that are going to come against the police will be coming mainly from far flung areas, like the Tana County, for example, where I come from. If we do not put deadlines, then a complaint might be recorded in Tana River County, transmitted to Nairobi and nothing is done. I have read this Bill and I have not seen anything called accountability. They have said: “The objective of the Authority shall be to hold the police accountable to the public in the performance of their function”. But how is that going to happen? Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, if a complaint is filed in Garsen, for example, that this and this officer has done this, after how many days should that complainant expect an answer? If it is filed in Lokichoggio, after how long and what action is supposed to be taken? What is this person supposed to know to show that something is being done? There is nothing in this Bill that gives mandatory requirement for action to be taken as soon as is possible. Therefore, it means that if we do not put it in law now, we have created a body that receives complaints and acts at its own time. It can agree to act after one month, two months or six months when they are supposed to be reporting to the Cabinet Secretary in charge of Internal Security. The other point I wanted to make is that the functions of this Authority are to investigate, including making recommendations on disciplinary actions that need to be taken, to the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP). It is also supposed to talk about compensation. After that, no biting power has been given to this Authority. Essentially, all this Authority will be doing is to make recommendations to the DPP. In Clause 7 it is stated that if a police officer has misconducted himself, they can provide information for civil action to be taken by the person who has been injured. They also say that they can make recommendations to the DPP for the prosecution of the police or the person who has committed that offence. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, if you look up there in the Bill, they are proposing that amongst the powers this Authority will have, is to administer oaths or affirmations before taking evidence or statements where necessary. This means the kind of power they have is almost like that of a tribunal or a small court. They can take evidence under oath which is very good. The other power they have is to summon people; retired officers or serving officers, to appear before it and answer to charges. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, you understand this because you are a senior lawyer. If you are able to take evidence, have summoning powers, why is it that the only thing you would want to do is just give recommendations after that?"
}