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{
    "id": 402569,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/402569/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 199,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. (Ms.) Kanyua",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 981,
        "legal_name": "Priscilla Nyokabi Kanyua",
        "slug": "priscilla-nyokabi-kanyua"
    },
    "content": "be applied by the Law Society of Kenya Disciplinary Committee, including removal from the Roll of Advocates in which you remain until death – actually we remain counsel for a long time. So, it is a very painful experience to be summoned by the disciplinary committee. Therefore, self-regulation can work and should work. This is what we are asking the media to be subjected to. Through the Media Council of Kenya Bill we are asking that the media be given the power, the capacity and the legal teeth to deal with their bad apples. The model of co-regulation reminds me to consider the review of the freedom of the media in Article 34(5). In the Advocates Complaints Commission, we also have the Government. In the Law Society of Kenya, we fully fund the disciplinary mechanism. In the case of media, we need to get some taxpayers’ funding. If that is the case then there must be some presence of Government, but very minimal presence really if we are to have the co-regulation model. That is the model with which we should pursue the Media Council ideals that we have here today – a little bit of Government in the sense of taxpayers funding and, therefore, the Cabinet Secretary in charge of matters of media having a role, but as much as possible the media be able to self-regulate. We have seen some excesses of media here in our country which should be addressed by the Council. As far as possible, this Parliament has to avoid chilling the media. When we have the fines like the ones we show in the KICA Bill going up to Kshs20 million, then that is chilling the media. If we have a chilled media, we are going to suffer lack of information. If we have a free media and we are a developing country--- There have been studies, including by a Nobel laureate that show a country with free media does not even suffer famine deaths; a country with free media will be able to take care of road safety; a country with free media will be able to address its health issues; a country with free media will be able to address its corruption matters. We do need a free media and we cannot afford, in any way, to chill the media. For the leaders here and a lot of us who are in public life and, therefore, get covered wrongly, the answer is to leave well from Parliament to the church or the mosque to the constituency and to the games and no other places. If you pass any other place, the media is going to follow you there and there is going to be report on you. But even when the media makes a mistake, as they often do, the answer is not a fine because fines do not even go to the person who was wronged. The answer is information. If the media today says that I am a dishonest woman the answer is not for them to pay me because a lot of people might believe that I am actually a dishonest person. The answer is for the media to put a story and probably with a photo as well showing that I am, indeed, a very honest woman and therefore, correct the information that they had given. Any payment of money does not quite erase the earlier picture created. So, as we look at this Bill, those are the sort of matters that we will be seeking to provide for, so that wrong information is corrected with information. If the media gives a wrong story of you on page 1, then they should correct that with a right story of yourself on page 1. That way, the public will have the right image of the leaders that it has. Yesterday we passed the Matrimonial Property Bill. The 11th Parliament should confirm to this country that it can implement the Constitution, and that it can implement The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor."
}