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{
    "id": 421906,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/421906/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 223,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "March 6,, 2014 SENATE DEBATES 33 Sen. (Prof.) Lesan",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "Madam Temporary Speaker, I rise to support this Motion and before I do that, I wish to congratulate my colleague Senator, Sen. G. G. Kariuki, who for a long time has been very concerned about the security of this country. The review of the security situation in this country is very absolute. There are obvious and enough reasons to support the fact that we really need to relook at our security once more. It has been 50 years since we became independent and there are certain things that have changed and have changed radically and we must be able to recognize them in order to address the security situation. For example, in 1963, there were only one million people living in urban areas in this country. Today, 50 years later, there are close to and above 15 million people living in urbanized areas. This number has increased exponentially and radically as a result of the influx. In other words, the people living in urban areas have not prepared themselves adequately to live in urban areas. Therefore, they have moved into urban areas haphazardly, unprepared and yet they would want to have a source of living within urban areas. With closeness of people living together in urban areas, it should be clear to us that their behaviours and their mode of action is going to be different. Therefore, it is going to affect the way we relate to each other. The issue of mutation of crime has already been mentioned and I do not want to spend a lot of time on that. We know that the crimes committed in 1960s are not the same today. This mutation is one of the things that worries us. One of the more recent ones is to do with terrorism. These are people who are heartless and who have no reason to kill other people and yet they do so and exist amongst us. The laws that we have before were not contemplating this kind of behaviour by individuals. Therefore, these changes that have taken place over a period of time are things that worry us. So, we need to relook at the security arrangement we have in the country. For example, kidnapping is a very new phenomenon and yet it is that dangerous. We also have things that have changed recently. In the recent past, this country has been blessed with the discovery of oil, a resource that is for the admiration of others. Therefore, other things have come in. We will soon be having threats from the borders of this country. Neighbouring and far-flung countries will start to admire the resource that we have in our country. Our country is perhaps ill-prepared to protect these new finds in our territory. We will soon be discovering oil in the sea. Therefore, the security arrangements we have at the moment are inadequate to protect this resource. It is very important that we review the security situation in this country. Perhaps one of the ways of reviewing the security situation of this country is addressing how we relate to our neighbours. Addressing the security situation of this country is also part of addressing how we address our neighbours. Part of these arrangements will need to look at our international policy and relationships with others so that we do not attract enemies that may come to our country. It is very timely that the security arrangement of this country is looked into again in the light of some of the reasons that have been given in this House and those I have talked about. Some of the ways of reviewing the security situation of a country are simple and straightforward and some of them are already known to us. One of the greatest setbacks we have with regard to security in this country is that we lack data. This is the why foreigners can walk into this country, commit crimes and 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."
}