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"speaker_name": "Mr. Wetangula",
"speaker_title": "The Assistant Minister for Foreign Affairs",
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"legal_name": "Moses Masika Wetangula",
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"content": " Thank you, Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, for giving me an opportunity to contribute to this Motion. The death penalty is a very emotive subject. If you may recall, a Motion like this one was brought to this House in 1995 by hon. Murungi, and we had some religious-leaning Members here who nearly physically roughed him up in opposing the Motion. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I stand to oppose this Motion because in my view, it is not founded on any reason. The foundation of the death penalty, first, is in the Constitution. This is in Section 71 of the Constitution. This should have been the first legal instrument of assault by Mr. Ahenda. It is the Constitution that allows the death penalty. The Penal Code finds authority in the Constitution. Changing any sections in the Penal Code does not, in any way, abolish the death penalty. Under the Criminal Procedure Code, punishments that can be meted by a competent court of law are listed and even if you amend the sections that the hon. Member is seeking to amend in the Penal Code, the Criminal Procedure Code will have been left intact. It still will provide for the death penalty and that death penalty will still have foundation in the Constitution. So, even if we pass this Motion, it is just rhetorical. It will not achieve anything. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, secondly, the death penalty always elicits a lot of emotions. In fact, in many parliaments, when a Motion or a Bill is brought on the death penalty, even party whips free their hon. Members to vote on moral grounds. This is because this is a moral issue. The fact that the death penalty has not been administered and robberies and homicides continue occurring, is an indictment to the police and the administration of justice system and not on the law itself. If you go to America today, you will find that in the last ten years, more than 15 States have reinstated the death penalty in the book. In South Africa today, there is a major public debate. If you recall, there was a case of a white racist, who two years ago, got hold of his black worker, tied him on a pick-up and drove with him rolling on the ground until he died. People woke up and wondered what to do with such a crude hard-nose racist. There is a debate going on. Hon. Ahenda should ask himself one simple question: What would have been the public opinion in this country, if we found the man who drove the truck into Ufundi House that exploded at the American August 1, 2007 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 2891 Embassy and killed 250 Kenyans? What would have been the court of public opinion? Would you have said: \"Let him go?\" Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, we have recently lost very important people in this country. I am not saying that any life is less important. Thugs are gunning down people by the day. The fact that they do not go through the due process and get convicted and hanged, does not mean that the law is ineffective. It is just, as I said, an indictment to the administration of justice system. Even in the Bomas Draft, if you recall, the first draft did not carry the death penalty. The delegates that assembled in Bomas unanimously reinstated the death penalty in the Draft Constitution. In fact, my colleagues across the Floor, when they were campaigning against the Wako Draft, they were busy dis-informing the public that the Government had removed the death penalty. It is shocking that now, the same hon. Members can stand here and say that they want to remove the death penalty. We have to be honest to ourselves and to the country. In a matter as important as this one, I will be the last person to support that this House will be the only one to have a last say on the death penalty. This is a matter for all Kenyans to talk about. In normal circumstances, the death penalty alone is a matter that we must take to the public to pass a verdict and say whether we should retain it in our books or not. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I know that there is a spirited campaign through the Non- Governmental Organisations (NGOs) and other organisations and their driving force is not because they are interested in the death penalty or its absence; the driving force is to continue attracting funding from some foreigners who pursue the agenda. It is the wearer of the shoe who knows where it pinches. Each and every hon. Member here has encountered a situation whereby you feel that due process must take place, but also that the death penalty should be there. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I want to ask my good friend, Mr. Ahenda: I read about a child molester in Namibia. A man took his six month old twin kids; a boy and a girl and bestialised them to death. He sexually assaulted his six month old children; a baby girl and a baby boy to death. What would you do with such a man? You will find that he is mentally sound and that he knowingly and wilfully committed such a beastly act and you say that in the name of human rights, \"give him another chance\"? I do not think so. I am sure Mr. Ahenda will think twice about bringing such an ill-founded, ill-informed and misguided Motion to the House because it does not serve any useful purpose to the people of this country. We must continue having a deterrent. After due process, we must continue making necessary and relevant penal punishments to criminals. Every so often you hear that somebody is driving in the streets of Nairobi and crude boys take away his life using crude weapons. They do this to take a mobile phone from you. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, when I went to Kenyatta National Hospital after the shooting of Prof. Bwayo, I found a young boy who had been savagely cut with crude weapons as the thugs tried to take a mobile phone from his hands. A mobile phone!"
}