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{
    "id": 511009,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/511009/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 149,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. Njuki",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 1372,
        "legal_name": "Onesmus Muthomi Njuki",
        "slug": "onesmus-muthomi-njuki"
    },
    "content": "Thank you, hon. Speaker for giving me the opportunity to contribute to this Bill. This House has a mandate. As elected Members of Parliament, and as lawmakers, we have a mandate to rise to the occasion if and when we are needed. At a time like this we need to show our value to the members of the community, our voters who elected us, because they are in need of good security in this country. I will support this Bill with very good intentions and reasons. For the last few years, the security of this county has been wanting and every Kenyan thinks the buck in security stops with the presidency. The paradox of the whole thing is like hiring a guard, giving him a gun, keeping the bullets and still expecting him to shoot. The President’s hands are tied because he cannot, in anyway, determine who becomes the Inspector- General of Police. He cannot sack him, and he cannot access security agencies as far as their administration is concerned. We are, therefore, saying that this Bill should be amended to give the President an upper hand, and a clear authority in what goes on regarding security in this country. If you look at the panel that interviews the Inspector-General (IG), the National Police Service Commission (NSC), the Law Society of Kenya (LSK), the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights (KNCHR) and the Independent Policing Oversight Authority (IPOA), all these are people who normally take us back after doing their work in the appointment of the IG, and they expect the President to be responsible for security. These are the same people who turn round and blame the Presidency for laxity in dealing with matters of insecurity. I want to point out a very important factor that has been introduced by this Bill. Article 37 of the Constitution gives the right to picket, assemble and demonstrate, so that demonstrators’ rights can be heard. One famous entrepreneur one time said “if you want to learn to do good business, you need to go to the poor and see what they do and then you do not do it. Then you go to the rich, see what the rich do, and do it better”. If you look at the developed world, there is no one time you will go to America, Britain, Turkey - I was there the other day - and find people on the streets picketing or demonstrating. They have designated places where they picket because Article 57 is not violated in this case. There is actually nothing wrong in having a timetable and an area set aside for picketing, so that we do not have the scenario we normally have here when we have people demonstrating against Parliament with pigs and going to Harambee House to picket at the gate of the President, and then we cannot even access our offices. People will go down the Central Business District (CBD) like Luthuli Avenue, Kenyatta Avenue and even River Road in the name of demonstrating just to loot businesses. This is why we are saying this Bill will give sanity in that area, so that we can have people demonstrate 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."
}