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{
    "id": 274007,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/274007/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 469,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Prof. Muigai",
    "speaker_title": "The Attorney-General",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 408,
        "legal_name": "Githu Muigai",
        "slug": "githu-muigai"
    },
    "content": " Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, we should not play politics with this issue because it is a very important issue. Mr. Chairman, Sir, the Bill that found its way to this House and was presented by the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Local Government, had been subjected to consensus building for over two years, if my memory serves me right. It was debated by the civil society and professional bodies. It was approved by the Commission on the Implementation of the Constitution (CIC), Kenya Law Reform Commission, my Chambers and by the Committee that these hon. Members – the hon. Mbadi and hon. Odhiambo-Mabona – sit in. The Committee went to great length to look at this Bill and it came to the Floor of the House because it was a consensus Bill. Therefore, to suggest that the President was flippant or that he did not seriously address himself to the history of the controversy surrounding this issue is untrue. Mr. Chairman, Sir, secondly, hon. Imanyara, who is my senior learned friend and my friend, says that this provision is vague. We cannot defeat the provision for vagueness. We can ask the Mover to provide further reasoning when he says it is open to hon. Imanyara to say that the President is unclear when he says this, but it cannot be defeated as a procedural issue before the debate is open. Finally, hon. Imanyara wonders whether the President does not recognise that there is the National Police Service Act and says that the provisions that we have tried to insert there are equivalent to those ones. That, again, is not a basis for refusing to allow the Motion to be debated. That is an issue that goes to merit. It is to say, when the debate is open, that what the President has said is unacceptable to hon. Members and, therefore, hon. Members can vote in a different way. Mr. Chairman, Sir, I want to also say that there is a difference between “police services” and “security services” as used in these two different Statutes. It is clear – this is my last comment and I say this with respect to you - if you allow me one minute. Again, our Constitution has created a system of Government in which some jurisdiction has been left with the national Government. Some jurisdiction has been devolved to the counties. It behoves all of us in this House to, whenever we make the law, ensure that we have each organ exercising its constitutional mandate."
}