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{
    "id": 490064,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/490064/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 19,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. Keynan",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 41,
        "legal_name": "Adan Wehliye Keynan",
        "slug": "adan-keynan"
    },
    "content": "Thank you, hon. Speaker. I want to take this early opportunity to congratulate His Excellency the President for nominating a highly qualified Kenyan, an expert in security, to take charge of this very important entity called the NIS. The NIS is the ear, the eye, the nose and, let me say, serves as all the senses of the Government and the people of Kenya. Therefore, it is only fair that we have the best security mind to head this critical organization. For those of us who have been in this House for quite some time, we have seen the evolution of the intelligence agency. For those of us who are not familiar with the history of this critical organization to appreciate it, in 1926 the colonial government created an entity called the “Criminal and Intelligence Division”, which was basically to deal with those Africans who were beginning to agitate for Independence. The work of the intelligence then was to find groups like the Mau Mau and others who were hell bent on attempting to educate Africans on asking for their rights. After we got Independence, this entity was slowly transformed in line with the policies of the newly independent Republic of Kenya into a Directorate of Security Intelligence. It used to be called the DSI. Up to that time, the national intelligence unit was part of the police force. Therefore, intelligence gathering was somehow taken as part of day to day functions of the police. After 1982, the Government of former President Moi started looking at the unique role of the intelligence agency. In 1986, the directorate was strengthened and its functions completely separated from the police force. In 1998, an Act of Parliament was passed; I am glad to report that I was a Member of the Committee that enacted the first legislation to create the National Security Intelligence Service (NSIS), an independent unit purely managed and operated under the NSIS Act. Since then, our intelligence agency has slowly transformed itself, and today it is no longer called the NSIS, but the National Intelligence Service. Functionally, it is completely different from the former NSIS. One of the functions of the NIS is to detect and identify potential threats to the Republic of Kenya. This is why their task is to collect, collate, analyse, synthesise and disseminate intelligence information. This intelligence information is not limited to security intelligence. It can be economic, social, political or security. This is why we need to strengthen – the Government of Kenya has done this over the years – our intelligence agency. How do we do this? We do this by allowing them to recruit the best minds and giving them adequate funding. For the few years I have been in this House, the successive Governments of the Republic of Kenya have been very generous with this. The only way the agency can appreciate and reciprocate to the taxpayers is to ensure that the taxpayers are protected round the clock by giving the Government adequate intelligence reports. The second function of NIS is to advise the President and the Government on security issues. There is something that we need to demystify. Over the last few years, there has been confusion whether there is an overlapping function between the Kenya Police, the Criminal Intelligence Department and NIS. The work of the Director of the NIS is that one, he is the principal security advisor to the Government of Kenya"
}