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"id": 501641,
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"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Sen. Kajwang",
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"speaker": {
"id": 164,
"legal_name": "Gerald Otieno Kajwang",
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"content": "Thank you, Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir. I thank Sen. (Prof.) Lonyangapuo for this Bill. It is a Bill that we have been waiting for, for a long time. It is good that the violence, probably, happening in his own county has made him think that we have to do something very drastic to change the way we police our country. One time, I was invited by the former Prime Minister to accompany him and the then Minister for Water and Irrigation, Hon. Ngilu, to Turkana. When we landed on the shores of Lake Turkana, we found that the Ethiopians – many of them militia – had raided the Turkanas of that area and killed more than 23 Kenyans. The police post which was supposed to protect this area had only five police officers. When we visited the post, they told us that the raiders came in their hundreds and there was no way they could fight. In fact, they ended up giving them food and water because they were overwhelmed. The only government there is the Catholic Church. They are the ones who buried the dead after praying for them, accompanied us to the police post and the ones who could provide intelligence about the security situation in that area. In fact, they could go across to the other side and talk to the militia on the other side so that there would be peace. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, outside the Catholic Church, we found a group of young people sitting on their traditional stools with their guns. They were the community police officers, what we now call in this Bill, the reservists. They told us that if there was communication, they would have protected the community. However, there was no communication and enough equipment. Even though they had guns, they had very little “software”; that is, the bullets. They were operating as volunteers outside the systems of Government. The Government did not regard them much, yet when push came to shove, they were the ones who could protect our frontier against these ruthless people. We, as a Government, went to Ethiopia to complain about this. I was one of the Ministers who went there. They told us: “You know, we are not aware, those southern communities are primitive. Ethiopia is a big country and sometimes they do these things without our knowledge”. However, later on, we got intelligence information that actually the Ethiopian Government provides equipment to this militia to protect their villages. What I am trying to say is that, our country is not properly organised in terms of security. At one time, we had the tribal police before we, later on, changed them to the Administration Police (AP). They were stationed at chiefs’ camps, living with the people, knew everybody and contained crime at the grassroots level. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, when we were working on the new Constitution, we actually pushed very hard for the AP to be attached to the devolved governments, so that their operations would be managed by the devolved governments. They would remain in the villages where they understand the language, culture and terrain of that area. But people in Jubilee refused and said that this arm of the police would remain as a police force. Now we have two commanders; one commanding the Administration Police and other the Regular Police; both answerable to the Inspector General. This is not helpful 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."
}