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{
    "id": 543836,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/543836/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 177,
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    "content": "the people who would identify the culprits. They work closely with the National Police Reservists (NPR). They also work closely with elders and can easily follow the criminals around. Suppose we work with the sub locations that we have around? We should assign about ten elders to work with the chiefs. They should not necessarily be old. Even the youth can be given responsibilities as village elders. It is very easy to use such units to run Government programmes at any level. For example, given what has been happening recently, if these units existed and a decree was given by the national Government to the lowest level, people would name all the people who have visited the village in the last 24 hours. Other government departments would also rely on them when they want to ensure that every child goes to school. The terrain of some parts of Kenya like Mandera is bad. People now fear to go into Mandera and they want to be on the highway. They want the police to be travelling with them in buses. How do you get to the interior? Those are the areas that should be manned by the smallest units and these are the village elders. As I was developing this Bill, I got interested to know how countries which have become successful like Rwanda had dealt with these kinds of problems. This is a country where people were massacred. It was not easy to tell how guns would be removed from the hands of criminals. I decided to visit Rwanda and stayed there for three days. I was thoroughly convinced that if we wanted to eradicate some of the problems we have, we should not fear copying what our neighbours have done. In Rwanda, every village elects a leader of everything. With regard to security, they have a village elder. If they want to introduce a government sponsored programmed regarding agriculture, they get someone to be in charge, whom they can rely on to disseminate information. This also applies to issues regarding provision of water. I was particularly interested in this area. If we are to get rid of the malpractices that exist, we should find a way of benefiting villagers. How do we pay them? Some countries do not pay them in the form of money. For example, in Rwanda, they are given health insurance. They are guaranteed in terms of health. When you become unwell, you walk to the nearest dispensary or hospital and you are taken care of. These people are also given free phones so that any time they have some important information, they pass it. This is done on a daily basis before 10 a.m. every day. I had visited Rwanda and the hotel reported that I was a guest. We used to praise ourselves and our country Kenya and call it an island of peace until we forgot to act thoroughly in some of these things. Rwanda took that direction. Some village elders give information regarding how many people have visited a particular area. That number is given to some security officers at the top. This is public policing which is very easy to manage. They told me a story of one time when some aliens came from Ethiopia and passed through Kenya unnoticed. They also passed through Uganda unnoticed. However, they went to scramble in a very tiny room and in a very few minutes, they had been known. This did not happen because Kenya allows such people to be around. However, it was noticed in Rwanda because of the security management system that is in place. 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."
}