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{
    "id": 501614,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/501614/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 168,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Kagwe",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 229,
        "legal_name": "Mutahi Kagwe",
        "slug": "mutahi-kagwe"
    },
    "content": "Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, from the outset, I rise to support this Bill and congratulate Sen. (Prof.) Lonyangapuo for introducing it in a very timely manner. If you read a little bit about volunteerism and the whole aspect of reservism, you will find that police reserves actually came to being before the paid police as we understand them today. If you consider that we borrowed this concept from the British after their colonization, you will find that long before we had proper police in the 19th Century, the country was served by volunteer police. Originally they were called “Manor police” because they were appointed by the Lords and were guarding the manors in Britain. The reason I am drawing that background is that there has always been globally for reservist police. If you look at the history of reserves, you will see many countries which embraced reserve police and they come in different forms. Some of them are pure civilians, others are semi-police and others work part time or full time. Let us think about one of the countries that do not have an army like Switzerland. This country does not have an army. The entire Swiss army are people who serve in different professions. People who serve in Swiss Air are actually in the Swiss Air force. People who drive trucks there, are actually in the Tank Battalion of the Swiss Army. Therefore, integrating people who do normal civilian work with those who serve to defend is not a new concept. In fact, it is something that we should have thought about a long time ago. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, in the Ninth Parliament we were trying to get people who guard us at night, that is, watchmen or guards, to be trained and given guns so that they can be part of our security apparatus. Even though that did not work at that time, time has come for that to happen. I am glad that in this Bill, the Mover proposes that Kenyans who are going to serve in this would have attained the age of 18 years and volunteer for services and are enrolled reserve police officers. More importantly, is the fact that they can come from all walks of life and do not have to be in any particular profession. 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."
}