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"speaker_name": "Sen. (Dr.) Zani",
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"content": "Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, I rise to support this Motion. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, let me start by decrying the state of security or lack of it. We have discussed insecurity in this country in various fora. We have talked about it in the Senate and had various broader discussions with various other stakeholders. What is amazing is that the rate of crime is increasing in all areas, be it cattle rustling, murder, manslaughter or cyber crime. All sectors of crime seem to be increasing and we need to ask ourselves why this is happening, to begin with. I believe that before we can curb or arrest a situation, we need to find out what are the basic facts that lead to it. Where have we gone wrong in Kenya? Is it our educational system, for instance, that creates too much expectation? According to scholars such as Martin, they say that if, for example, the level of expectation is higher than what you can attain, then people tend to seek even what they cannot find. This can be used to explain white collar crimes specifically where, for many youth, the dream is to drive a car and to own a house without a plan of how they are going to do it. 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 I remember asking a group of youth sometime back that, if they got the chance to steal their first million, would they steal it? They happily and very confidently said yes, because at the end of the day, crime has become a means to achieve anything that you need to achieve in this society without really putting a lot of consideration in terms of the cost and the consequences. For many of the youth, issues like drugs have come in and made them not really think about their actions, hence determining these particular actions. To a large extent also, the failure of security organs to arrest and reprimand properly most of the offenders has also caused an increase in these specific crimes. So, somebody knows, one way or another, that he will get out of the loop by having lawyers who, over time, are able to defend them, and they will do so at whatever cost. We have a group of people who will get into crime and know that they will get out of it because they will find a way in the system of either legally or illegally getting out of it. Legally if they get lawyers who can get them out of the situation, but illegally because there are systems in terms of security organs and the processes which also tend to be corrupt. It is not new in Kenya; that we know that people give money and get away with acts of crime that they have actually perpetrated. So, how do we go forward in terms of addressing these issues? Where do we move to? One, I think we need to exhibit our commitment; that we really want to change. If we exhibit such a commitment, we begin to ask ourselves; how do we begin to change the modus operandi ? What new strategies can we come up with in terms of combating crime? I think very little has been done in terms of strategies of combating crime, and for many discussions that have taken place, most of the time, it is as though the perpetrators are actually one step ahead of the protectors. Cyber crime, for example, you find that now there are new ways and means of stealing from Automated Teller Machine (ATM) cards, for example. So, we find a group of people who are always one step ahead in terms of planning and execution of these crimes. Unfortunately, this society is reaching a point where criminals and their way of life is sometimes seen to be the successful life. Therefore, if we do not find ways and means of discouraging criminal activities and creating norms and values---, because even as we talk about strategies, we need to have a background for implementing those strategies. What levels of values do we have in this society? What level of commitment to fighting crime do we have in this society? Then we can begin to think more strategically about how we can actually implement various sorts of strategies. Unfortunately, even the strategies have not been discussed extensively, starting from police reforms that have been advocated, especially from the post-election violence; and a need to audit and say: “Where are we in terms of these police reforms? What sort of capacity building has been given, for example, to the forces so that they can actually implement their work effectively on what they do on a day to day basis and the other issues of housing, security and how they can be tackled? In Kenya, sometimes we tend to make one step forward and one step backward. We come up with ideas and strategies that we do not discuss extensively in terms of where they will take us to, the advantages, the disadvantages and the steps to take us to the right direction. We implement policies, and then go a step backwards and accept that we went wrong. Community policing is one of those initiatives. It is a good initiative to begin with, but to a large extent, in terms of research that has been put into it, it has failed 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 because people do not trust those same community initiatives that have been put into place to fight crime. In the long run, you find a situation where there is community policing but nobody really comes forth to report what is happening on the ground. You will find a community that does not look at a police officer as a friend, like it happens in the Western world where community policing has been effective. People will not come forward to report anything that is criminal, like if illegal guns have been identified somewhere or there is a theft that is about to happen. They will not report such and try to contribute towards averting a crime. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, the issue of small arms is an issue that has been discussed many times even in this Senate. What strategies can we come up with to curb the proliferation of small arms in this country in order to ensure that every Tom, Dick and Harry does not have a weapon in this country? Sometimes we hear devastating news that some of those weapons are hired out by those who should be protecting the same citizenry. This raises the issue of the best strategies to put in place. I think we have not had a national discussion and I think this is what is being advocated by Sen. G.G. Kariuki. We should come up with a committee to undertake a comprehensive security review with view to formulating modern security strategies capable of containing crime and safeguarding national security interests. We should have national conversations in a very concise and honest manner so that if there are new strategies, then they should be brought on board. It is the responsibility of the Members of that committee to do that. This would be like a think tank that will really look back at the background and the statistics and the event of the crimes that happen, the causes for the specific crimes and the specific strategies that can be used at the various levels, be they at the individual, community, county or national level, so that it becomes very specific. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, I think the terms of reference for such a committee would be to ensure that the strategies they come up with are really new and dynamic. If we keep churning out the same old strategies that have not worked, then it will become very difficult for us to curb crime. I think such a committee should also constitute experts from the various fields be it the political, economic or security forces so that they can actually bring into interplay their knowledge and skills. Fighting crime has always been very difficult for many generations. In fact, if you look at the rates of crime, you realize that even those who are jailed and released go back to it again. Sometimes we have heard that people in jail are still perpetrating criminal activities from inside the jail. For those who have come out, they still perpetrate the same crimes. That means that something has gone wrong somewhere. The message that crime is not acceptable has not been really received. When many people think of what decision to make, they think of rational choice model where you put your costs and your benefits on one side. Once we put together the costs and benefits, you will see that the benefits outweigh the costs. That will be an incentive to benefit all. From a psychological point of view with regard to using punishment as a strategy to curb crime, we should ensure that criminals are given crime deterrent sentences to ensure that they do not go back to commit crimes. That argument has been made especially in rape cases where if maximum sentence is applied--- The problem is that the judge is given discretion to decide to give either the minimum to the 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 maximum. All those factors come into interplay in making a decision about the maximum sentence someone should be given. That is where the whole combination of the criminologists themselves, police officers, and the judiciary need to come together. I think there has not been enough interaction between those specific arms. At times, the issue of crime is proliferated further because everybody seems to be moving to a different perspective rather than joining together. Judges and prosecutors should articulate the cases. However, there seems to be a lack of balance between what is expected of them and what they come to do. In countries where systems are working very well, we still have issues coming out in terms of the way sentences are given. Some countries, especially those in the West have moved to a different strategy to deter people from going back to crime. Some countries have come up with the use of houses where people are still in prison but are allowed to go out. The cost of putting people in prison is very high. Some people who are put in prison do not even give back. I have seen people who get very happy when they are arrested because they think they can get everything in prison for free. If this is the mindset of the people who are in prison, then how will we deal with them? People who are convicted of crimes which are not very serious should be left out so that they anticipate going back to their families and to give back to the community. What happens to families where a father has been imprisoned and, therefore, cannot play his fatherly role? Is there a way we can balance this? How do we treat a chicken thief vis-à-vis someone who has stolen billions of money within a particular society? We should have that balancing act and look at the systems. We need to know what has gone right and what has gone wrong with those systems and to evaluate what has made people in other societies that have found it critical for people to move forward. This Committee needs to be empowered. However, the selection of who needs to be in the Committee needs to be done carefully. This needs to be a think-tank of brilliant new minds that want to do things differently. The issue of criminals and crimes is not something that is only being fought by the Third World. The developing world is also fighting. This is being fought by everyone everywhere. With those remarks, I beg to support."
}