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"id": 241624,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/241624/?format=api",
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"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Mr. Wako",
"speaker_title": "The Attorney-General",
"speaker": {
"id": 208,
"legal_name": "Sylvester Wakoli Bifwoli",
"slug": "wakoli-bifwoli"
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"content": " Mr Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I can also decide to make a confession before a former magistrate, an hon. Member, a colleague and Chairman of the Public Investments Committee (PIC) because I know he is the type of person who can protect my July 20, 2006 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 2267 rights when they are being violated! Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, we have also tried to borrow a leaf from other countries because it will be necessary to make detailed rules which will govern the process of taking a confession. We are giving the authority to the Attorney-General - we shall not in this case act alone - in consultation with the Law Society of Kenya (LSK) and also in consultation with the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights (KNCHR) and other suitable bodies to make rules governing the making of a confession in all instances where a confession is not made in court. So, in addition to what is in the ambit, we are also saying that rules will be made available. Those are the rules which will have the confidence of, at least, the LSK and the KNCHR. I think through this process, we should be able to obtain confessions without reverting back to the mischief which we tried to clear before; torturing to obtain confessions. Hon. Members will be reading amendments to the Housing Act. We will be reading amendments to the Public Trustee Act. The amendments to this Act is to increase the value of the estate which may be administered by the public trustee. At the moment the maximum is Kshs100,000. We are proposing to increase that to Kshs500,000. The reasons are self explanatory. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, there are amendments to The Service Commissions Act. There are also amendments to the Education Act which will empower the Minister to establish other institutes of higher education, for example, the Kenya Institute of Special Education. We are recommending amendments to the Kenya National Library Services Board. I am just going quickly through them because if I have to go through each of them and explain, I may be here until next week. I know that hon. Members have read this so I do not have to necessarily repeat the proposed amendments. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, we are proposing amendments to the Traffic Act. The amendment we are proposing is to empower the Minister to make rules, specifying the measures which may be applied, including the use of appropriate devices for that purpose. The purpose being to measure, for example, levels of intoxication. In other words, through this, if it is enacted by Parliament, then the Minister can make proper rules to accommodate the use of such devices as breathalysers. I think the proposal is so good that even the Committee has decided to add another proposal, which I accept. The proposal of the Committee is that there should be a new form of driving licences in the form of a plastic smart card containing a micro-processor based chip. So, if we can have these two proposals going, I think we would be on the right track in removing the road carnage on our roads today. We have proposed amendments to the Transport Licensing Act; a minor one to the Constitutional Offices Remuneration Act, which really is to clarify the issue of entry point within the salary scale to a constitutional office holder. It does not necessarily have to start at the bottom. It can be determined depending on his age, experience and so on, to enter a level which is slightly higher than the bottom. There have been two interpretations on this; that as soon as you are appointed, you must start at the bottom. Other people say, no, there are powers to start at the middle or within the scale. It is just to clarify that issue that this proposed amendment has come. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, there are proposals to amend the State Corporations Act, to exempt State corporations with private sector participation from the provisions of the Act. We have some State corporations which have private sector participation. The Treasury has proposed that such corporations with private sector participation should be removed from the ambit of State Corporations Act so that we can encourage private sector participation. I have received some representations on this issue not only from within the Government, but also from outside the Government. We shall be re-discussing it before the Committee Stage; whether to keep it as it is or whether it should come in a modified version. We belong to the East African Community (EAC). One of the most important institutions 2268 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES July 20, 2006 which survived the collapse of the EAC was the East African Development Bank Limited. The boards have passed a resolution through the Council of Ministers to amend the Act in the three territories so as to protect the assets of the Bank from interference, seizure or expropriation. This is an amendment that other parliaments in Uganda and Tanzania will also be moving. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, we have amendments to the Trade Marks Act which are really intended to harmonise The Trade Marks Act with the Industrial Property Act, which are twin Acts, in terms of the appointments of the managing director, employees of the corporation, and so on. We have amendments to The Hire Purchase Act which are really to increase the ambit of the Act. Currently, the hire purchase agreements captured by the Act, the value must be Kshs300,000 which at the time, the late Mr. J.M. Kariuki - this was a first Private Member's Bill, if my memory is correct, to go through this House. It was brought by the late Mr. J.M. Kariuki. At that time the figure of Kshs300,000 was a lot of money. However, now we know that it is just about half of the salary of we the people in this august House. We propose that we increase the agreements captured under this Act to Kshs2 million from Kshs300,000. The Committee has proposed that even Kshs2 million is low and it should be Kshs4 million. I agree with that and at the Committee Stage that amendment will be proposed. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, we are proposing to increase fines under this Act. At the time when the Act was enacted, the fine was Kshs20,000. It was a lot of money at that time. We have proposed Kshs100,000, and the Committee has proposed Kshs200,000. I agree with the Committee's proposal. There are also amendments to the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act. These relate to the issue of analysing drugs with a view to destroying them. We have one requirement in this Act, that drugs must be destroyed in the presence of the person to be charged in respect of the offence. This particular provision has handicapped immediate destruction of seized drugs. This House, in 1997, passed an amendment to this Act to provide for a procedure for destroying seized drugs before trial is concluded. This was done because of the possibility of drugs disappearing, if they have to be kept until the trial is concluded. This House provided for the presence of the accused person. This law has created a handicap in the destruction of seized drugs. I have travelled to many countries and have seen that the requirement for the presence of the accused person is not necessary. But there are procedures which require that when drugs are seized, everything should be recorded by courts, and everything that is seized should be destroyed almost at once. At times, you may seize drugs, but it may take years before you get hold of the suspect. He may have run out of the country, or may not be around at all. If you capture any suspect, he will be a small wheeler-dealer, or may be just a courier. It may be difficult to get hold of the real drug baron. Therefore, if you have to hold to ransom destruction of drugs, because you cannot get the drug baron, the very purpose for which this amendment was passed will be defeated. That is why we are now proposing an internationally-accepted procedure of destroying seized drugs, without jeopardising the right of the accused person when he is ultimately found. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, there are also amendments to the Physical Planners Registration Act. There are also amendments to the Auctioneers Act. The Auctioneers Act was initially enacted as a result of a task force I set up to make recommendations to me on the law governing auctioneers. The task force came up with its recommendations. As at that time, there was only one body of auctioneers. This was the \"National Association of Auctioneers and Court Brokers\", which later changed its name to the \"National Association of Kenya Auctioneers\". We had an interest in the auctioneers themselves being represented on the board, and we tried to professionalise it. We provided for three or four representatives from the National Association of July 20, 2006 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 2269 Kenya Auctioneers. Since that time, we do not have just one body of auctioneers. We have another body of auctioneers called the \"Kenya National Society of Professional Auctioneers\". We have very many other bodies of auctioneers. They all need to be represented on the board dealing with their issues. A body that is left out feels excluded. So, they approached the Chief Justice, who is the appointing authority in this regard, for the board to be representative. That is why we proposed that we should not mention any of them. We can just provide for appointment by the Chief Justice of representatives to the board, in consultation with recognised and registered bodies or associations that deal with auctioneers. That is why we are proposing this amendment. I am saying this because there is a lot of writing going on among these bodies, some supporting this amendment and others saying that they must be the only ones to be on the board. The real reason is that they are not like the Law Society of Kenya, to which you must be a member if you are practising law. These are voluntary organisations, and you cannot tell everybody to join this or that association, except by law. So, because of that we have a number of national associations dealing with auctioneers. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, we have amendments to the Kenya Roads Board Act, which are on the Table. I know that a number of Members of Parliament are interested in these amendments. When you are reading these amendments, do so alongside the recommendations by the Committee. In this way, we can come to some understanding for the purposes of the Committee Stage. We have amendments to the Industrial Property Act, which came in from the Ministry of Trade and Industry. I have received very many representations, particularly from the civil society and some Government departments. They all say that this is an issue that needs to be discussed again. This has something to do with anti-retroviral drugs for people living with HIV/AIDS. They feel that these amendments will draw us backwards. But I know we are engaged in discussions over this issue with the Ministry of Trade and Industry. When we come to the Committee Stage, I think we may have a solution on the appropriate amendments to this Act. We also have amendments to the Copyright Act. We also have amendments to the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights (KNCHR) Act. When the KNCHR Act was enacted it stated that the Attorney-General is its responsible Minister. That was in 2002. But things changed in 2003 when the Ministry of Justice and Constitutional Affairs was created; I must say the Office of the Attorney-General had always recommended, even before 2003, that there must be such a Ministry. The Ministry of Justice and Constitutional Affairs was then given the human rights issues portfolio under the organisation of the Government. So, the amendment is to delete the AG and substitute thereof a phraseology, which will cater for any changes that may come. It will simply refer to the Minister responsible for human rights. We will refer to the Minister for Justice and Constitutional Affairs, but some countries have a specific Minister for human rights, or a Minister for governance issues in others. So, the phraseology that we have put here will cover all those types of situations. We have many amendments to the Anti-Corruption and Economic Crimes Act, which have been well set out in the Memorandum of Objects and Reasons to this Bill on page 556. They are too long and I do not want to read them out. In any case, the Minister responsible for these matters will be talking about them as she seconds this Bill. I expect her to deal with the proposed amendments more in depth than I have done. I also notice that the Committee also addressed, quite at length, recommendations on the two Bills, that is, the Anti-Economic Crimes Act and the Public Officers and Ethics Act. The last amendment is on the Public Audit Act and I believe that it is self explanatory. In a nutshell, that is what this Bill is all about. I have not touched on all the Bills, but the amendments are self explanatory. I only touched on a few things here and there. With those remarks, I beg to move and ask the Minister for Justice and Constitutional Affairs, who is also the 2270 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES July 20, 2006 Deputy Leader of Government Business, to second the Bill."
}