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"id": 416250,
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"speaker_name": "Hon. (Eng.) Gumbo",
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"speaker": {
"id": 24,
"legal_name": "Nicholas Gumbo",
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"content": "pathetic. Even as we look at the issue of security, let us look at the situation of junior police officers. Recently, the Officer Commanding Police Division (OCPD) in my constituency told me that his house allowance is only Kshs5,000 per month. If you are paying an OCPD Kshs5,000 as house allowance, how do you expect him to make ends meet? Do you want him to go and live in a 10 feet by 10 feet room, yet he is an OCPD of a whole sub-county? We need to look at this matter soberly. Insecurity does not discriminate. We have had insecurity in the President’s own backyard. We have had insecurity problems in the Deputy President’s own backyard. Hon. Speaker, in your own Embu County, there has been many cases of insecurity. So, I would inform the Chairman of the Committee, and my colleagues, that there are real problems that we need to look at them. While on this debate, can we be convinced that if we give the proposed powers to the IG the security situation in Kenya will improve? I beg to differ. It will not. Even with the powers that the IG has now, he needs to do more. The security situation in Kenya is very bad. The other day I was reading about some poor Kenyans who were carjacked near Roasters Inn on Thika Road. Those were innocent Kenyans. Some barbaric gangsters waylaid a bus, hijacked it and stabbed people indiscriminately. They then went and dumped them in some forest in Thika. Honestly, is there nothing that can be done about this? We now know of thugs on motorbikes. People are being shot at traffic lights but nothing is happening. Can the IG not do a little bit more even with the powers that he has before he attempts to ask this House for donation of powers that he already has? Hon. Speaker, I believe that the Office of the IG, and the NPS in general, is not doing enough to ensure the security of Kenyans. It has been said before that power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. We are trying to give an office more powers. In essence, all people are good. In fact, many people will behave reasonably if you give them powers, but giving them too much latitude, which is what he is seeking now, is basically asking the Office of the IG to do things as they wish. I find it unacceptable that this House can sit, debate and donate more powers to an office which has time and again shown the Members of this House that he does not view them with any regard. Hon. Speaker, you personally ruled on the issue of hon. Ngunjiri. If your word cannot be respected by the IG, if the word of the chairperson of the parliamentary committee in charge of security cannot be respected; if the word of the Cabinet Secretary responsible for security cannot be respected, what are we doing here by donating more powers to the Office of the IG? I urge my colleagues. Realize that insecurity does not discriminate. It will affect all of us. Let us go against this matter for the time being. Let us all rise and oppose the proposed amendments, so that we can look at this matter holistically. I am even thinking that the time has now come--- Whether we like it or not, we need a national dialogue on the Constitution that we passed in 2010. There are structural issues in that document that we cannot live with any longer. We have to address them. It touches on security. It touches on governance. It touches on a whole spectrum as to how this country is run. Even on issues of the Executive, how many times have we said that we need, as a House, to look at them. When I asked my colleague here, the Member for Tiaty, hon. Kamama, to answer a question on matters of security, why was I giving him a task that the Constitution has not donated to him? His job is to make laws, represent the people of Tiaty and provide oversight over the expenditure by the Executive. The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposes only. Acertified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor."
}