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"speaker_name": "Mr. Ochilo-Ayacko",
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"legal_name": "Ochilo George Mbogo Ayacko",
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"content": "Thank you, Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, for giving me an opportunity to contribute to this very important Motion. I want to thank the Mover of this Motion for bringing a Motion that is going to grant leave to him to bring a Bill to this House, to abolish capital punishment. In this country, capital punishment is permissible for three sets of offences. They are: Treason, murder and robbery with violence. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, everybody knows that everyday, one person or many people get murdered. Murder has become a very prevalent offence. Likewise, robbery with violence is occurring by the hour. This is in spite of the fact that all Kenyans are aware that if you murder or rob any person violently, you stand or run the risk of being hanged. Now, that shows that the mere presence of the provision to hang a murderer or violent robber, in itself, does not deter people from committing acts of murder or robbery with violence. August 1, 2007 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 2889 The act that has not been repeated in this country, is that of treason. One reason Kenyans do not get involved in treasonable activities is because the Government is the official monopoliser of violence. Generally, treason is futile because you cannot mobilise sufficient forces to be able to take on the Government. Since the Government has the police force, Criminal Investigation Department (CID) and army, no soul in Kenya is able to conceive treason and try to execute the same against the Kenyan Government. Again, there are other reasons why Kenyans do not involve themselves in treasonable activities. I think this is a country that believes in regular elections and competitive politics. So, Kenyans do not think of changing governments other than through political competition. That has discouraged them from getting involved in treasonable activities. So, any person who says that the presence of hanging in our Statute books is a deterrent to the commission of capital offences, is getting it wrong. This is because for the time that this country has been in operation, people continue to commit acts of murder and robbery with violence undeterred. That shows very well that it is not the pain involved in hanging people or potential of hanging people that is the deterrent, but it is much more than that. So, the proponents of capital punishment who say that the fact that the potential to hang a person will discourage that person from committing that act, are getting it wrong. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, we have, in our criminal system, adversarial system on dispute resolution. We have the prosecution and defence. More often than not, you will find that people who are taken to court under suspicion of committing capital offences, do not have the means the afford good lawyers. They are also without the means to represent themselves sufficiently before the courts of law. So, the mere fact that a court of law, be it the High Court or subordinate court, would find a person guilty, does not in itself show that procedure was scientifically followed or the person committed that offence. What it shows is that the court arrived at the conclusion that based on the evidence that was presented before that court, the court has found that person guilty of that specific offence. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, we know very well that our courts are presided over by human beings. Particularly, courts of first instance, are presided over by magistrates and prosecutors who are lowly paid. So, the kind of job that is done by these people, cannot be above reproach. The cardinal principle in the Penal or criminal system is: It is better to let guilt escape than to punish innocence; moreso, if the punishment is one that is irrevocable. In fact, the purpose for which we have governments in the world, is to preserve life. If there is any doubt that a life will be taken on the basis of evidence, that was not properly tested, then we should not give an excuse or opportunity to any institution to take away the life of an innocent person. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, the world history is replete with situations where people were executed for offences that they never committed. You will recall that people like Plato and Socrates were executed and, later on, it was found out that the offences for which they were executed, were basically the truth that they stood for. You will remember that even in South Africa, at the height of Apartheid, when the regime was most oppressive, the likes of Nelson Mandela, Robert Sobukwe, Walter Sisulu were not sentenced to death or be hanged by the neck until pronounced dead. If they had in their Statute books death sentence and were able to sentence these people, I am sure countries like South Africa would not have benefitted from their wisdom. I know that somewhere in the historical parts of the Bible, like the Acts of Apostles, people like St. Paul were executed. But remember that the New Testament has very many books that were written by St. Paul. Perhaps, if he was not executed, he would have written more letters to the Corinthians and Galatians, and the Bible would be richer today. People like St. Peter were executed because of the existence of death penalty. I think that the abolition of death penalty is something that this country must approach. We must abolish it, basically, because the reason for punishment is deterrent. 2890 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES August 1, 2007 Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, punishment should deter the wrong-doer from repeating the offence if it can be scientifically proved that the wrong-doer committed that offence. It should also deter people with such dispositions from engaging in similar acts. If you sentence somebody to death and eventually execute that person, you do not give that person an opportunity to atone for his sins or to repent and, therefore, get God's blessings during the day of judgement. Because of some of the errors that are there in the penal system and some of the faults that we have in the evidence that is adduced before court, and generally, the society is poor and cannot afford to pay good lawyers, there is a possibility of breaching the cardinal principle in criminal justice and punishing innocence and letting guilt escape, particularly if the guilt is able to afford a defence for itself. This should make us abolish the provisions of capital punishment in our books. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I have said and I want to repeat that Kenyans do not commit acts of treason because they believe in regular elections and they know that it is not possible to mobilise enough forces and sufficient public goodwill to overthrow a democratically elected Government. Kenyans do not engage in treason because if you are found doing so, you will be hanged. Otherwise, Kenyans would not, by the day, engage in acts of murder. You know that Mungiki is all over this country trying to butcher people. They are aware that if they are caught, they will be hanged, but they continue doing it because the existence of hanging in the statute books in itself is not a deterrence to capital punishment. I believe that a good society is a society that leaves vengeance to God and does not revenge against people. With those few remarks, I beg to support."
}