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{
    "id": 555486,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/555486/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 243,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. M’uthari",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 1576,
        "legal_name": "Joseph M'eruaki M'uthari",
        "slug": "joseph-meruaki-muthari"
    },
    "content": "Thank you, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker. At the outset, I rise to support this Bill. It is important in the sense that it provides the opportunity for transfer of prisoners from foreign countries. Some of our citizens who go out for one reason or another might find themselves on the wrong side of the law. In the process, they end up being imprisoned. That causes a lot of trouble for the families of those prisoners. Some of those prisoners are in faraway places like China, India, the United States and United Kingdom. Members of their families may want to go and console them, but they are not able to do so because of the costs involved in travel. This Bill gives an opportunity for those prisoners to be brought back home. That can also unite the families. It is also better to be jailed at home. One Member spoke about our prisons being bad. They may be bad but, whatever the case, home is home and it is the best. This Bill also gives an opportunity to the Kenyan Government, through the Attorney-General, to reach out to the countries where Kenyans may be jailed and request for their transfer back home or their countries of origin. We also have cases where criminals from other countries are jailed here in Kenya. When foreigners are jailed here, we end up spending our resources on them for corrective services. Prisons are supposed to be humane places that provide an environment for rehabilitation. It should not be a place for hardening the culprits. It is essential for us, as a country, to make prisons a rehabilitation place. Prisoners should be engaged in a way that can enable them to become better citizens when they come out. The Bill provides that after the transfer, the prisoner should serve the remainder of his or her term. They should not be punished the same way they were being punished in their former prisons. This is a good provision. All in all, it is an opportunity for such prisoners to seek the transfer. They should be in prison within their motherland. This is a good provision that should have been there from the beginning. When the prisoners are transferred, they should be supported so that, at the end of the day, their dignity as human beings is upheld. With those few remarks, I support the Bill."
}