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"content": "Madam Temporary Speaker, I want to be very clear from the onset that there is a lot of insecurity in this country; there are a lot of killings, cattle rustling, rapes and all kinds of crimes that you can think of. But the answer to all these problems is not in arming our citizens. I know and I agree that we are desperate. However, let us not be so desperate as to cause more problems to ourselves, thinking that we are solving them. Yesterday, I requested the Government to give us arms, but direct them to homeguards to guard selected people who have been trained and identified. One of the biggest problems we can face in this country is to let loose or to allow people to go with firearms, because we will be killing each other every day in bigger numbers than we are doing today. Madam Temporary Speaker, it has been quoted here that in the USA, it is a constitutional right for some states to possess firearms, but we must look at the history of that right. Why was it a constitutional right for Americans in the southern states to possess firearms? It was because of the civil war that they had. After that civil war, they said “before we come to the union, we want to retain our rights to own firearms because of the insecurity that was prevailing then; and that right has been maintained”. But today in the USA, which is supposed to be a civilized country, there are so many killings. People are walking with guns to schools and spraying children with bullets. Last Saturday, a gunman walked into Los Angeles Airport and killed people there. It is happening every day. So, what are they doing? They are now trying to limit ownership of firearms. Madam Temporary Speaker, we have the Firearms Act in this country, which I know very well as I have gone through it many times and it is adequate. Sometimes it requires administrative amendments, for example, up to a few years ago, you could only be licensed by coming to the Licensing Officer in Nairobi. But that was liberalized; it was decentralized to say that it is the District Security Committee which vets applicants for firearms licensing. When that Committee approves the application, then the firearm is issued by the licensing officer. We cannot go below that because even in the world today, only in February this year, the United Nations (UN) passed the Arms Trade Treaty. Why was this treaty passed? Because there is so much proliferation of small arms and light weapons in the world that people are not secure. Let us not justify our bad governance, which has been cited here; lack of command structures and try to think that we can resolve it by arming people. Madam Temporary Speaker, yesterday or I think last week, at the Administration Police College, the District Commissioners (DCs) – or call them County Commissioners (CCs) – who were hitherto responsible for the administration police--- The administration police refused to take orders from DCs. What I am trying to say is that we have a complete breakdown of governance structures. We have gone so low that the sentiments expressed by Sen. G.G. Kariuki were so touching to my heart that I agreed with every word that he said. But I asked myself: Is this the solution? It is not the solution. Madam Temporary Speaker, we are already trying to see how we can get the guns that are in illegal hands to prevent more killings of our people, but how can we do that? I, therefore, want to oppose this Motion. With a lot of respect to my brother, the answer for insecurity in the country is not to arm our citizens, but rather, to find ways of improving governance. One, we should recruit additional police because we are told that the number The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposes only. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor, Senate"
}