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"id": 212115,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/212115/?format=api",
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"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Dr. Kibunguchy",
"speaker_title": "The Assistant Minister for Health",
"speaker": {
"id": 294,
"legal_name": "Enoch Wamalwa Kibunguchy",
"slug": "enoch-kibunguchy"
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"content": " Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I would like to thank you for giving me this opportunity to also say one or two words about this Motion before us. At the outset, I would like to say that I oppose the Motion for various reasons. The death sentence is given for various crimes that have been committed. I would have supported this Motion if the death sentence was reserved specifically, for those who have proven and shown in a competent court of law that they caused death to another person or they have committed murder and so on. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, why am I saying this? We are living in a world where a lot of very bizarre crimes are being committed. Recently, we buried a teacher who was a wife of a councillor in Trans Nzoia. If you saw the way the body of that lady was mutilated, you cannot possibly support a Motion like this. I think we need to come to a stage where we say: \"An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.\" If you are going to take somebody's life, your life must be taken away. I do not think that we can support a Motion like this when we see crimes being committed; the kind of bizarre crimes, almost sadistic, being committed in this country. We see people being July 25, 2007 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 37 beheaded and you find the body in one location and the head in another location. If somebody like that is found, then he must be made to pay for what he did There is absolutely no reason why one should take one's life and then we say that we are just going to sentence them to life imprisonment. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I think the core issue of the Motion before us, is whether or not the State can come up with competent lawyers to represent those who are accused. Yes, I agree, there are chances when an innocent person might pass through the net and be found guilty and yet in the long run it turns out that the person was innocent. That should not be a reason why we should say that we abolish the death sentence. We should go back and re-examine our system of justice and find out whether it is possible - and I am sure it is, other countries have done it - for us to be able to hire lawyers to assist those who are poor and have been accused for very serious crimes like murder. But I do not think that we can say that we abolish the death sentence. That is why I oppose this Motion very strongly because we are going to perpetuate what we are seeing now. We are going to make the situation that is bad, worse. We are going to give a \"blank cheque\" to people to do all kinds of crimes knowing that they will get away with it because there is no death sentence. The death sentence must be there to deter those who might think that they can do whatever they want, for instance, take away people's lives, and get away with it. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, we are living in a world where lawlessness has taken the centre stage. We are living in a world where mayhem is being reported everyday. We are living in a world where adults are defiling our children. We are living a world where there are bizarre killings. The Kenya Society for the Protection and Care of Animals (KSPCA) advocates that if your animal is very sick and you want to relieve it of the pain and the agony that it is going through, you should kill it in a clean and quick way. But the kind of killings that we are seeing, there is a lot of hatred, cruelty and sadism behind them. You cannot understand why somebody should be cut open, all his intestines are removed out, he is left alive and he dies a slow death. Are we saying that the person who does such a thing should just be sentenced to life imprisonment? I say no. If you take away somebody's life, we will also take yours away. This Motion is trying to say that one can get away with anything, even with the beheadings that we have been seeing on television. I say \"no\" to that. Once we allow that, and if the message will come from this august House and go out there, then we are giving our people a free hand to do whatever they want to do on other Kenyans. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, before I conclude, I would like to reiterate that probably we need to make sure that those who are guilty are truly guilty and those who are not guilty, are not guilty. We need to change our justice system. The accused should be assisted to get competent lawyers who will represent them so that we do not get the innocent, but poor, being framed for having committed a crime that they did not do. With this kind of thing, I will support it. But you cannot say that somebody who is guilty, and some of them even go to court and confess to having killed, can be allowed to go scot free. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I would like to oppose the Motion with the understanding that there is a chance. Maybe we need to bring another Motion to see how best we can assist those who have been accused, but they are poor and cannot afford to hire lawyers and the system may rush them through and sentence them to death when they are truly innocent. We need to find a way of separating the two. But if somebody has killed, that person needs to be killed. If somebody takes away a life of somebody else, his life also needs to be taken away. I know that we are Christians and I know what the Bible says, but I also know that reality demands that we have to do what is right, just and proper for the Kenyan citizens. With those few remarks, I beg to oppose."
}