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"speaker_name": "Mr. Wetangula",
"speaker_title": "The Assistant Minister for Foreign Affairs",
"speaker": {
"id": 210,
"legal_name": "Moses Masika Wetangula",
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"content": " Thank you very much, Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir. The importance of this Bill cannot be over-emphasised. You must have read in books, newspapers or seen on films about an organisation prevalent in the United States of America (USA) and Italy called Cosa Nostra . It is commonly called the \"Mafia\". That organisation deals in organised crime and money laundering. They were very notorious for boot- legging in the prohibition years. They also deal in drugs. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, whenever a \"don\" - that is what they are called - is arrested and prosecuted, witnesses and their whole families either die or disappear just before the trial. They hypnotise witnesses to the extent that when they get to court, they suddenly suffer from amnesia. They cannot remember anything or anybody; cannot see anybody or hear anything. This intimidation is so common in an arena where crimes of mega-corruption, drugs and dirty money are prevalent. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, of late, we hear a lot about corruption and drugs in our country. You will recall that, recently, we were told that we have the largest cache of drugs ever impounded in this region. In crime, there is the famous doctrine of crime fighting back. Criminals are no longer wayward characters in the society. Criminals are organisations. Criminals and criminal organisations sometimes are bigger than governments. You certainly know the case of Escobar of Colombia. You know the recent cases that have emerged here; investors who have now been described as dangerous international criminals and many more. If those Armenians were here with their bare chests, gold, tattoos and dark glasses, who dares to go to court to testify against them? This is a cycle everywhere. In Italy, over and above the legal protection of witnesses, if you are going to testify against the Mafia you wear a mask to go to court, or you stand in a cage with electronic devices to twist and disguise your voice, so that nobody can know who you are. In that cage, nobody can see you. The law has allowed that, that is the only way to fight crime when crime fights back. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, it is important, therefore, that Kenya, not being a country where hard drugs emanate; but being a country enjoying a dubious distinction of a mega- route of drug trafficking, must find ways and means of fighting the offenders without hurting the whistle blowers and those who take the courage to go to court and testify, and also to protect their families. Recently, you heard of the case of a policeman who was brutally murdered in Mombasa because he was on the trail of criminals. Such cases happen, that all of us do not know. Some happen and are made to look like accidents. You have heard of cases of people leaping from the 20th floor of a building under inexplicable circumstances. When you investigate, you find that they did not leap, but they were made to leap by the criminals. That is the reason why this Bill is very critical. We must protect witnesses who take the courage and volunteer to testify against hard criminals. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, we must protect witnesses and their families. It is putting the onus on the Attorney-General to decide ways and means of protecting these witnesses, including giving them new identities and relocating their residences. I believe that the people who 1882 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES July 5, 2005 are being tried in the Kshs6 billion drug haul are \"small flies\". The real guys are elsewhere. If we were to put such guys on trial, the Bill even allows the Attorney-General to relocate the witnesses out of the country temporarily or permanently, depending on need. This is done everywhere. I have no doubt, in your vast reading, you read the case of the Odessa File where witnesses in the Nuremberg Trials had to be given new identities and unlimited resources to go and settle in South America in little minute villages where nobody would ever know that hon. Mutula Kilonzo who testified against hon. Muturi is staying there."
}