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{
    "id": 563263,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/563263/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 269,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. Nassir",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 2433,
        "legal_name": "Abdulswamad Sheriff Nassir",
        "slug": "abdulswamad-sheriff-nassir"
    },
    "content": "Thank you very much, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker. This is a very interesting Bill which comes at an interesting time. To take you back, the rise in number of firms and companies associated with security is directly connected to the erosion of the State’s ability in keeping its citizens safe and secure. I would like to give some figures which were taken from various organisations including the Human Rights Watch Africa, the Kenya Human Rights Commission and Amnesty International. According to these figures, 66 per cent of respondents who were interviewed in Nairobi were victims of some sort of crime. The same figures indicate that 86 per cent of the respondents confirm that at one time or the other, they have witnessed some sort of crime. It gets scary that 36 per cent of the respondents feel that the police are aiding criminals. Needless to say, the figure of the citizens who have been victims of extortion by the police becomes even higher. As a result of this, Kenyans have resulted to vigilante groups, neighbourhood watches, community policing units and in the more affluent populations, security firms. This Bill is welcome. It will regulate an industry that employs 400,000 Kenyans. The 400,000 people come from 2,000 companies with the largest employing an average of 10,000 people and the smallest firm employing less than 50 people. This is as per the official records. This means that for every one watchman, there are 10 Kenyans. If we look at unofficial records in terms of companies that have not officially registered their employees and we add the vigilante groups and the community policing units, it means that one person has to keep watch to an average of about six to seven Kenyans out there. This Bill is welcome. It will regulate among others the advisors on issues to do with security and those who come up with response services, monitoring from CCTV to signet monitoring, private investigations and installation of equipment. However, the Bill has failed to come up with two major aspects and I hope the Committee will bring some amendments. The first one is the element of sharing information between these companies. This is because we will have a situation where if we have 400,000 Kenyans employed, it is easy for someone to commit crime from one company and join another company. Over and above, there has always been an ad hoc kind of arrangement between the security forces and these private institutions to assist especially when it comes to monitoring public sirens and alarms that the companies have installed. Lastly, the issue that will be bringing a lot of heat to Kenyans is the element of gun ownership. There is also the issue of whether it is time for us, as a country, to consider equipping our regulated security companies with guns and proper armory instead of stun guns to rightfully fight crime in this country."
}