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"content": "In Part III, it talks of protection of victims of crimes which entails preliminary assessment of victims and filing of reports, clarifying the nature of the victim or victims. It also talks of victims’ details. For instance, like in the West Gate Mall, when there were many victims of crime, there was so much confusion in the way we dealt with it. This Bill says that when you have mass victimization, there must be an authority that writes the details of those victims, that writes where we do not know the person, maybe, because they are unconscious or dead, that you must write what they are wearing. Like if I am a victim today and I am dead, God forbid, you will say she was wearing pink, she was wearing a pair of trousers; she had a very fancy hairstyle or any other such distinguishing marks. It also talks of confidentially of victims’ information, security of victims and psychological support and victim impact statement when the matter is before court. Under Part IV, it talks of victim services, which includes provision of information to victims of crime. It provides the structure and operation of what should be given to the victims, its structure and operations of the justice system. The lawyers who are here, especially who have practiced in the criminal justice system, will tell you that a lot of people who go to the justice system--- Not even lawyers. The people who have gone to court themselves will tell you that when they have gone there as victims, they have always been confused. Sometimes, you appear before court and you are not told the date or you are given the wrong date. You are not told when your matter is coming or you are told that you were not there and your case is dismissed because you were not present and yet, you were waiting at another corner. So, it obligates the court to give correct information to victims and social support especially where the victims are vulnerable. It talks of the role of lawyers and the status that should be given to victims because, sometimes, victims do not understand when they see one lawyer speaking to the other and they think they are colluding. So, they need to understand the role of lawyers, the dates and location of hearings, where an accused person is to be released from custody and any due date of release. The means of victims to report any case of intimidation and threats by an accused person and means for the victim to contact the board of power on mercy, giving views under Article 133(3) where the Government is likely to release a person that caused the original victimization. Part V talks of Victim Protection Trust Fund that has contribution from NGOs and Government organizations. There is a victim surcharge levy and we have very carefully not included money from Government coffers because then, that would have been a different route. When we appeared before the Budget and Appropriations Committee, the Chairman - and I am glad he is here - had indicated that, that is one of the things that they would be very eager to seek an amendment to see that the Government provides money for this. I am reliably informed by the Committee on Justice and Legal Affairs that pre-emptively, they have pushed for a further allocation of Kshs80 million to deal with the issues that are arising from this. Part III talks of protection of victims as I have indicated. Part IV victim services and Part V is the Victim Protection Trust Fund. Part VI is the Victim Protection Board. Again, because of time, I cannot go through the details. Monitoring is Part VII and then we have the miscellaneous provisions in Part IIX. Because of time, I would just want to say that we have spoken with the Chairman of the Justice and Legal Affairs Committee, who has requested my indulgence that I 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."
}