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{
"id": 250985,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/250985/?format=api",
"text_counter": 194,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Mr. Awori",
"speaker_title": "The Vice-President and Minister for Home Affairs",
"speaker": {
"id": 290,
"legal_name": "Moody Arthur Awori",
"slug": "moody-awori"
},
"content": " Mr. Speaker, Sir, I was just making a point; that we must not have any clause that may be responsible for an innocent person to be put in jail. We would not want an innocent person to spend ten years, five years, one year or even a day in jail. We have to make sure that these laws are consistent with what we are doing. Perhaps, we should not put too much emphasis on punishment alone. We have to try and see why this is happening. If you look at the punishment alone, you would think that murders would be getting fewer because we still have the death sentence for murder. However, the murders continue to increase. If it is just the question of sentence, robbery with violence calls for capital punishment yet the robberies continue irrespective of that. We then must start asking ourselves: Why have we become worse than animals? Animals would never molest their children. They never molest a weaker animal. Mr. Speaker, Sir, in my view, it can only mean one thing; that we have completely lost our family values. This is one area which we must look into. While you cannot legislate against or in favour of them, it is important that we look at this. There is no longer any respect for and within families. Nobody is giving respect to his or her father, uncle, auntie or any other respectable people in the society. Even the communities themselves seem to have lost totally, the structures that kept us together, and helped us to behave as human beings. Mr. Speaker, Sir, those among us who are much older can remember clearly what an auntie, an uncle or any other respectful person meant. That kept the family values together. That goes beyond the family. Even within the Government, we have no respect for institutions and structures. That is simply because we have taken foreign ideologies and cultures in the mistaken belief that we are now becoming civilised. Some of the clauses in the Bill legislate against culture. Culture, like religion, is something which we cannot legislate against because those are things which are very sensitive, indeed. We should try and look very critically at every clause, particularly the ones that touch on culture. If we do that, we will succeed in having a good Bill that will protect our children, women and everybody else. Parallel with enacting this Bill, it is important that we increase the number of magistrates and judges. I am happy that, this morning, I opened a newspaper and saw an article which the Attorney-General had published, that proposes to increase the number of judges of the High Court, Court of Appeal and magistrates' courts. I think that is the way forward. We should have as many judges as possible. While having them, it is absolutely essential that they be properly trained. They should not just have gone through the Kenya School of Law. They must be sensitive to the system so that the sentences they pass are commensurate with the crime at hand. I am happy to note that 820 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES May 2, 2006 the Bill puts a great deal of emphasis on the girl-child, so that she is protected. We also have children who are mentally handicapped and need to be protected. Mr. Speaker, Sir, I am happy to say that sentences for people who offer custody to such children are even stronger. That is the way forward. Mr. Speaker, Sir, I want to plead with the sponsor of the Bill, and the Committee led by hon. Muite, to harmonise some various parts of it, so as to gain support. Once we support the Bill, it will protect all Kenyans, males, females, children and adults. With that, I beg to support."
}