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"speaker_name": "Mr. Odoyo",
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"content": "comes from, is still hanging in the air because we have not buried him appropriately. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, in fact, the amount of anguish that is caused by the State, in my view, belies the punishment or the intention of the spirit of the death penalty. The death penalty is an inhumane act. It is man playing God. Why should a democratically elected State - elected by wananchi or given votes by the common man - try to play God? Why should the State play God by imposing upon themselves the power to give life and death? Life is given to a prisoner should the President commute his or her sentence and death, if he says, \"Here is a warrant for your death.\" Why should a Head of State, a human being with blood and flesh just like you and I, be July 25, 2007 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 39 given those Godly powers? Why should we allow an individual to have power over life and death of a fellow human being? In today's civilised society, as was pointed out by the Mover of this Motion, it is time for us to say, \"No, enough is enough.\" We need to move on. However, Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, allow me to look at comparative nations. All the Scandinavia nations do not have the death penalty. Of the 52 States in the USA, only 10 have the death penalty. That includes the State of Texas, where the current President of the USA, George Bush, comes from. The other 42 States have not accepted the death penalty as a final punishment for committing an error or a treasonable or capital offence. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, as we stand here today, in the USA, for example, of the 2,600 prisoners on death row, 2,300 are black people. Why are they black? It is because the white judicial system does not favour them. The whites-dominated judicial system favours their fellow whitemen yet serial killers are often whites and the most heinous crimes are committed by the whites. However, they get away with it because they can hire good lawyers and they are able to find their way through the law courts of the USA. If that can happen in such a heavily and highly democratic rich country like the USA, what will happen to a country like Kenya where there are no adequate resources and the judicial system and the law courts are wanting? Indeed, the present Government overhauled our High Court by making several judges appear before a tribunal upon allegations that they were corrupt. How many of those judges took the wrong persons to jail? How many of those judges issued death warrants to very many innocent Kenyans? Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, today, we have DNA tests, which are accepted in the American judicial system. The DNA tests - because this is what I could find in the internet - has enabled the release of 300 people on death row. We do not have those facilities here. What we have to put our feet on is where the State is undertaking extra judicial killings. We cannot give the State the power to kill. If you are suspected to be a member of the Mungiki, you are shot dead. We have to put down our foot and stop these extra-judicial killings. Those who are caught and taken through the judicial system should be given a life sentence as the maximum. A life sentence enables one to serve as an example to one's relatives outside and know that the greatest freedom of all is freedom, and not to be in jail. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, the State of Texas has killed more people on death row than any other state in the United States of America, yet crime statistics in that country show that Texas is ranked third in terms of the crime level."
}