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"speaker_name": "Mr. Ahenda",
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"content": "Thank you, Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, for giving me this opportunity to contribute on this debate. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, security is the absence of insecurity, while insecurity is the absence of security. If you want one, you must remove the other. Therefore, if the Minister focuses on removing one of them, the rest will take care of themselves. It is paramount that if we have to develop, we must have security. No development can thrive in an insecure area. Above all, this Government must provide security in this country. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, employing more police officers, giving them bullet proof vests, G3 or even AK-47 rifles, will not remove insecurity in this country. They should not only work hard, but also work smart! Some years back, there was talk about re-training the entire police force. This is yet to be seen. A few years back there was talk that the Kenya police force was going to incorporate community-policing to make them user-friendly. We would like the police to approach the public as part and parcel of the community. We do not want to see our people running away from the police officers. That alone brings insecurity. Let the people know their rights. Let the people know that they are part and parcel of the security arrangement. Let them be a community that understands the work of the police officers. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, police officers have been working in a manner to suggest that they do not need the community. That is why a lot of information that would have come from within is not given because they treat 2372 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES July 10, 2007 common people as criminals. In the Penal Code, all suspects are assumed innocent until proven guilty. However, that is not so within the Kenyan police force. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, let us not experiment with our security. Let us do something beneficial to our people. Let us start from the known to the unknown as somebody once said. We should start by what we already know will work and not what we think will work. That will improve our security. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I agree with the hon. Member who contributed earlier, that there are no enough vehicles for the police department. The situation at Kasipul-Kabondo Constituency is even worse. It comprises of almost three constituencies in one. It only has a single police station and all the DOs do not have vehicles. I even had to carry out a harambee to buy a Land Rover which is now broken down. I would appeal to the Minister to talk to his counterpart; Mr. Kimunya, who had confiscated many vehicles from the Government and see how those vehicles can be given to the Police Department. Those vehicles are rotting in the yards! These vehicles were supposed to be sold. However, one year down the line, they are just lying idle. If they could be donated to the Police Department, we could improve the security situation in this country. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I must thank the Minister, at least, they have tried to improve the security situation, particulary in the North Eastern area. A few years back, we used to hear about raids three weeks after people have been killed and the raiders gone. At least, this period has been reduced to one week. Could the Minister reduce it even to one day, so that when a raid takes place today, we know about it tomorrow? Honestly, we know raids will occur again. Can they not do something to prevent them? Can they not even station a chopper up there, so that they do not have to come all the way from Nairobi two or three days after raids? We will never find the cattle and goats driven across the borders. This thing happens year in, year out. We must find a permanent solution for it! We should not wait until it happens and ten, 20 or 30 people have been butchered. All the same, the number of days that the news reach us has been reduced. I believe they can still do much better. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, are the Provincial Administration officers a sign of security or insecurity? Could something be done about them, so that they become part and parcel of the common people? They were used by the colonialists for oppression and they remain a symbol of oppression to date. Could they be transformed? The chiefs and assistant chiefs can fully be transformed, even if it means electing them rather than imposing them on communities. I feel that in the days when chiefs and assistant chiefs were elected, they were more user-friendly to the community and provided better security. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I urge our police officers to stop extra-judicial killings. Time is up. We should behave as a civilised nation. I need not repeat what has been said on these extra-judicial killings because it has been articulated well. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, Administration Police (AP) officers have become part of the Regular Police. What is happening? Quite often, I see them at road blocks. Regular Police officers sit back and the APs are the ones inspecting vehicles. They do not know. I am glad the Minister has said that the motor vehicle inspection unit has been moved back to his Ministry. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I must say that he must also have experienced as a person that a policeman manning a road-block does not even know how to drive. He or she has no idea of how a vehicle looks like. That is the guy who is deployed to man a road-block to check your vehicle. Could policemen manning road-blocks have some ideas about vehicle engines rather than just having trained policemen manning them. Some traffic policemen sometimes ask questions that show, for heavens sake, that they do not know how to drive a vehicle. I have seen many road accidents happening at police road-blocks. That happens because the police manning the road-blocks have no idea of how a vehicle works. That is why some of those accidents take July 10, 2007 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 2373 place at the main police road-blocks. Could the policemen be trained on how to drive vehicles before they are sent to man road-blocks? Could the Administration Police (APs) assisting traffic police officers have their roles clearly spelt out at those road-blocks? Could the APs be given full training as police officers, so that they can know what to do? Some of those APs, because they know they are under policemen, do some things that are atrocious to the common people. With those few remarks, I beg to support."
}