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"id": 213985,
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"speaker_name": "Mr. M'Mukindia",
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"id": 271,
"legal_name": "Kirugi Joseph Laiboni M'Mukindia",
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"content": "Mr. Speaker, Sir, thank you very much for giving me this chance to also support the proposals by the Minister. At the outset, let me say that one must accept the fact that a lot of insecurity that we are faced with today, has been inherited and has been in formation over several years. Therefore, while we may not appreciate what the Minister is doing, we should not forget the fact that for many years, to be quite honest, successive Governments did not do much to curb insecurity. One only needs to remember that the issue of Mungiki, for example, did not start yesterday. You are aware that even within the precincts of the National Assembly, the usage of the word \"war-lord\" to describe certain people is quite common. What happens? When we hear \"war-lord\" we just laugh. We hear \"jeshi la fulani \" we just laugh. So, insecurity has become part and parcel of us, including the leaders. For that reason, this country and its leaders do bear the burden of ignoring the issue of security for a long time. Therefore, it is not possible to get rid of insecurity overnight. Mr. Speaker, Sir, the only problem is, while the Minister and his Ministry may be doing a very good job, unfortunately, the public relations in so far as this Ministry is concerned is very poor. That tends to detract it from the good job that is being done. The public is concentrating on the public relations side rather than on the work being done, because that is what attracts people. I would, therefore, encourage the Minister and his officers to now try to concentrate on the work and improve on the public image. I can tell him, quite honestly that it is very poor. People and the Press tend to concentrate on that one and forget about the real hard work that is going on like improving training, equipment like motor vehicles, housing and so on. Nobody talks about those issues. What we talk about is the brutality of the police, what the Minister said at this or that function and so on. I think we should change but the onus is on the Ministry itself to change. Mr. Speaker, Sir, the other issue that has brought about insecurity, apart from the porous 2488 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES July 12,2006 borders and increase in the number of small arms within the country, we must accept the fact that this country is very unequal. Unless we do something urgent to address that, as Prof. Maathai said yesterday, we are in trouble. To address the issue of inequality, it has to start from the top. The Government must have a programme to ensure that we spread the wealth of this country. We have very limited time. What is happening in Mathare, Kibera and other parts of the country, is giving us notice that we have very little time. While I appreciate that the economy has grown, we must ensure that the economic growth trickles down to the very poor in our country. Mr. Speaker, Sir, I am personally disappointed that during the debate on the Budget and even now on the vote of the Ministry, it was not clear that we are deliberately targeting the poor of this country to ensure that they get some of the benefits of the economic growth. I would like to challenge the Minister that since they are saving a lot of money in development, like putting up houses, police stations and so on, they must define that for every contract of putting up a house, a certain percentage of it must go to labour to ensure that we absorb those youths who are jobless. I know that this is very hard work, but unless, we as leaders are prepared to do the hard work, we shall not enjoy the seat that we are seating on today. If we behave as if nothing is happening and as though we are not responsible for the poorest in the society, then when they come knocking at our doors, as they have already started doing, who is going to be blamed other than ourselves? This is something that all of us should take as a challenge. Let us ensure that every road or building that we build, at least, a certain amount of the contract sum must go to direct labour. Mr. Speaker, Sir, regarding the issue of training, as you all know, the structure of colonial Civil Service and colonial police force was there to protect the colonialists. Our police force has not changed. They had to brutalise the Africans. That was their primary goal. Even today, our police officers who have been trained by the same trainers who were trained by the previous trainers who were ultimately trained by the colonialists, do not know anything else, and you cannot blame them. As you know, our children can only learn from the parents or the teachers who taught them. If we deliberately teach people to brutalise wananchi, as we are doing, then how can we blame the police force? So, the police are not to blame. We are to blame because we have maintained certain colonial systems which brutalised wananchi in this country in the colonial times and we expect them to be better. It is not possible. Therefore, we must go back to square one. What are our training structures? What are we training them for? We should not also beat and mistreat them in those institutions. When the recruits are mistreated, what do we expect them to do when they pass out? They will mistreat the wananchi as well. So, we must re-look at this whole issue. This does not only apply to the police force, but also the army and the civil servants. What does \"civil service\" mean? The civil servants are there to serve in a civil way. They are not there to innovate and implement. They just serve. Then, when they do not implement or innovate, we blame them. Are our civil servants trained to innovate, implement and cut costs? They are not trained to do that. They are purely civil servants. Having inherited the British civil service system--- We all know how the British civil service system used to operate, until Margaret Thatcher joined it in 1978. It was, really, a kind of a royal way of overlooking the performance of other people down there. So, the top managers would just give instructions on what is to be done, while they never did any work. So, civil servants, from the British system, do not work. They give instructions to others to work. That is what we inherited. Have we trained our people to change? Kenya requires civil servants from a developed country such as Britain. Therefore, while we may lay blame on the end product of what we have done, I think, ultimately, that blame must come back to us. Mr. Speaker, Sir, I share the same view with hon. Maore regarding roadblocks. I remember, 15 years ago, we actually managed to remove all the roadblocks in this country, and people were very happy. The roadblocks that we have do not really help. They are a non-tariff barrier. Actually, they could also be a tariff barrier, because they extract things from wananchi . Not only do they bar July 12, 2007 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 2489 the roads themselves, but they are also used to ask for kitu kidogo. So, they are both tariff and non- tariff barriers to trade. What is the value that this country gets from having those roadblocks, permanently, in certain places? I have no problem with them, if the Minister and Commissioner of Police were to realise that there is insecurity in certain areas and, therefore, they need to do something urgently. There is nothing wrong with that, because it is an operational issue. But, really, we do not need a roadblock in Kasarani for 20 years. What do the police officers stop at these roadblocks? They stop commercial vehicles. If one is driving a Mercedes Benz or Pajero, no question is asked. But the person who is carrying tomatoes from Kirinyaga has to be stopped, hence, delayed. With those few remarks, I beg to support."
}