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{
    "id": 307215,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/307215/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 258,
    "type": "other",
    "speaker_name": "",
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    "content": "appointed will be vetted here. There cannot be one office we shield from vetting. What fits one, fits all. We grant appointment by the President but vetting by Parliament, because it is an important national office. This is not targeted at any one. This is for posterity. These are foundations that we are laying. I am glad that these very Bill is proposing to penalize any holder of office or any member of the NSIS who involves themselves in partisan politics. This is a must. We do not want to be hearing of six parties funded by the NSIS, or by the Government. Whether it is a rumour or not, why are we having these perceptions? How have they conducted themselves? This is a wake-up call. You cannot have free and fair elections when people start fouling elections long before. All actions must be contained to intelligence gathering and the things that are set out in the Acts which I will not care to quote. I heard a colleague worrying about what the intelligence did to avert post-election violence. Even as I ask the Minister today whether there was intelligence in Tana River, in particular in Garsen, where the deaths of 50 Kenyans occurred early this morning, we also must ask ourselves, as leaders, our role. If you have participated in precipitating a situation, it is not enough to blame agencies like the security intelligence or the police. Let us watch our tongues and actions. We too are players in promoting peace in this country. Yes, we should call upon the NSIS and all the security agencies to play their role, but we as leaders must learn to take responsibility and do what is within our powers to ensure that there is peace in this country. I have seen Clause 37 which is talking of a search warrant. I want to say that, in line with Section 43, the NSIS should never search without a warrant. They can obtain that warrant ex parte as provided in Clause 43. They need not tell you that they will be coming to search, but let them go before another entity, a court, and give an affidavit or oral testimony giving the reasons why they want to search somebody’s house. Those are checks and balances to safeguard rights. Because they can go ex parte, they can even get a judge at night if they like. Nothing will be lost. We are only subjecting them to another check and balance before they enter your house. I am against them being given any power of arrest. They cannot be the intelligence gatherers and also the people to arrest. You can as well give them power to prosecute and to jail you. Let them gather intelligence but the arrests be done by the police. Remember that an NSIS officer is a citizen of Kenya and citizens have power of arrest. So, if they are in dire straits, using the citizens’ power of arrest, they can arrest. I advocate that they should bear arms because they need to protect themselves. If ordinary Kenyans are getting firearms, how dare we deny our NSIS firearms? They should not have power of the police to arrest, but they should have firearms. They can then arrest using citizens’ power of arrest and not police powers. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I have looked at the schedule, and I am saying that we should delete Schedule A, which is trying to overlap their role with that of the police and retain Schedule B, which is talking of protecting themselves or another person. This is giving them equal powers to a citizen confronted by danger. Clause 72 is talking about their source of funding, which can include donations. I want us to be careful. Who is going to donate to our NSIS? Let us fund them from the Exchequer; that is monies passed by this National Assembly. Let us leave donations to other agencies and not to our intelligence service. I think that is a bad design."
}