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"speaker_name": "Mr. M. Kilonzo",
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"content": "Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I thank the hon. Member for pointing out the doctor. But from legal parlance, the fact of the matter, as far as I know, is that the former Minister for Justice and Constitutional Affairs went away with the storm that he created in the Judiciary, and I think it was good riddance. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, the fact of the matter is this: We have 22 Judges awaiting resolution of cases pending before tribunals. I may not be right about the number because I did one successfully, but I do know that these tribunals are still pending. The Attorney-General has an obligation to tell us what is going to become of these tribunals. I was amazed to see the Chief Justice swearing an affidavit, saying that whenever a Judge is accused of corruption, he is not obligated to refer that question to the Judge before he refers it to the President for the appointment of a tribunal. No wonder we have the mess that we have! Moreover, the appointment of these Judges is not addressing the issue of continued corruption in the Judiciary. Recently, we were treated to a public situation where a magistrate was actually caught receiving not much, but Kshs10,000. Therefore, I think the Attorney-General should tell us more about these matters. With regard to the Court of Appeal, the Attorney-General, obviously, being lost for a formula, is suggesting 14 Judges. But we all know what is going on in the Court of Appeal. Our Court of Appeal has not become a circuit court. They take three Judges to Nyeri and leave the others in Nairobi. Three go to Mombasa and leave the others in Nairobi. The same applies to Nakuru. That is an archaic method of the management of administration of justice, and the Attorney-General will agree with me. The Rift Valley and Eastern Province, for example, should have their own two Courts of Appeal and three Judges, because of their size. The other remaining provinces should have, at least, a bench of three Judges, so that they will not have to be travelling from Nairobi to different places. We have even ended up with issues of their imprests, some of them being accused of not surrendering them. Therefore, I will be suggesting in the Committee of the Whole House that we should go further and have, at least, 30 judges. If you look at the possibility of having 30 judges at the Court of Appeal, you will see that I have used a formula which is better than that of the Attorney-General, which is having three judges per province, except for Eastern and Rift Valley provinces where we can have at least six judges whose function is to go and hear cases emanating from those districts. Justice is not a favour. It is a constitutional right! As long as you have to travel long distances in order to go and see a judge, that justice is compromised. Therefore, the time to bring the administration of justice closer to our people is now. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, let me leave that area and go to another very important one. Recently, Parliament passed an amendment to the Evidence Act saying that the police are abusing their power to receive confessions. I do not know what became of the NARC Government, because barely three years after coming to power, they are saying: \"Sorry, we cannot handle that. We want to go back to policemen receiving confessions\". I want to tell this House without fear of contradiction that a confession is a legal term and the only person who can understand whether you are really confessing in the right circumstances is a person who is trained in law. That is the reason why Parliament amended the Evidence Act and removed the power of policemen to receive confessions. It does not matter whether he was the investigating officer or not because they have their network. He will say: \"My suspect is coming to you, make sure you get a confession because I want to improve my record\". We have to ensure that confessions remain with the people who know best how to deal with confessions. 2276 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES July 20, 2006 Indeed, Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I accept that we must have rules. During the making of those rules, I intend to propose to the Law Society of Kenya and to the Attorney-General that a confession in Kenya should never be accepted unless it is recorded on video or tape so that the magistrate or judge who receives the confession can see for himself/herself whether the man was being put in a cell with two inches of water or he was naked and exposed to the vagaries of weather. In this day and age of the internet, video, radio and tapes, the time has come for us to make sure that if we really are tabling a confession, then the magistrate should not be left in doubt as to whether the man has bruises or not. Therefore, I will also be opposed to that amendment to the extent that it includes a police officer to be managing confessions. I want to join my learned friend, the Minister for Justice and Constitutional Affairs, on this issue of constitutional offices. If you look at the language used, and I am sure that she will agree with me, this is a window being created for influencing constitutional office holders in the performance of their duties. The words are:- \"Provided that where a salary scale is specified, the holder of the office shall be paid such salary within the scale as the Office of the President may determine---\" Remember, it says: \"Office of the President may determine\". You know who the Ministers referred to here are? They are hon. Michuki and the others. It continues to say:- \"---having regard to the differences in skills, workload, accountability attached to each office---\" You are opening a window and you are creating a discretion for the Minister sitting in the Office of the President to tell a judge: \"Beat it!\", or even the Attorney-General when he retires: \"Look here, you are not pulling your weight now, therefore, we are not going to give you an increase\". I am totally opposed to this window of opportunity being created. They will start telling even the Attorney-General himself: \"Look here, you did not advise us correctly\", because they are talking about accountability, skills and work load. This is a window that is going to bite you, whether you like it or not. When we create a constitutional office, we want the Office of the President to keep as far away as possible in order to ensure that the people holding those offices are not tainted with politics and other sectarian, regional or even tribal inclinations."
}