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{
    "id": 563242,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/563242/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 248,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. Kang’ata",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 1826,
        "legal_name": "Irungu Kang'ata",
        "slug": "irungu-kangata"
    },
    "content": "Thank you, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker. May I support this Bill and also reiterate the issue that has been discussed by various Members here - giving private guards guns. I support that idea. Initially, it appeared to me as if it is not a good idea. But on thinking harder, I have come to that realisation that it can make sense. Why do I say so? One, we can come up with a mechanism to ensure that there is no abuse in the issuance of guns to people. How can we do that? One, we can propose amendments and provide that any guard who should get a gun should get some certain minimum payment. Maybe, a payment that rhymes with what a police constable gets from the Kenya Police Service. Two, we can raise the level of education. If you are getting a gun, we say for instance, you must be a Form IV leaver. Three, we can come up with a situation and say, once you get the gun, every day, you will be returning that gun to the police station nearest to you. It is the property of the Government and you are only getting it for some period and then returning it. Four, we can say that in the event you lose that gun or a bullet, it is going to become a punishable crime under the law. The idea of guns, in my own opinion, makes sense, particularly in this era where we have many terrorists. The kind of war that we are waging with the terrorists is what we call “asymmetrical war”, where you cannot tell where that person is. You are facing an enemy who you cannot even trace. In that kind of a situation - for instance the Garissa Attack - if we had our guards with guns there, they would have taken some time off to deal with the terrorists and, to a certain extent, by the time they would have probably been able to over-power the guards, it would have given our children time to exit out of the Garissa Campus. Therefore, it is time that this country embraced that idea which has been proposed by my colleagues - that we allow guards to get guns. 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."
}