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{
    "id": 603461,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/603461/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 92,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. King’ola",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 2328,
        "legal_name": "Patrick Makau King'ola",
        "slug": "patrick-makau-kingola"
    },
    "content": "Clause 19 is on defamatory information. Recently, I cited in this House how defamation can cause panic. A survey was conducted around Athi River in Mavoko Constituency where residents have had breathing problems and chest infections. Information was given that the illness was caused by dust emanating from the East African Portland Cement Company. The people wanted to know what the company was doing to address the problem. We found out that after the company mines and the land lies bare, the company then goes ahead and sells that land. The company was started in 1959 and it has not constructed a single primary or secondary school or a dispensary has been constructed by it. The members of the public decided that they were going to repossess the land, but the Governor of Machakos County said that those are grabbers on land that belongs to the East African Portland Cement Company. Activities on the same land were causing sicknesses to the people and instead of the company paying back to the public by building schools and dispensaries, they go ahead and say that those are grabbers. In fact, the owner of the company pointed a finger at the elected leaders, particularly me, and said that I am a land grabber. This Bill should be aligned with the existing laws. It is high time defamation becomes a criminal offence. If you are implicated today on wrong information, Chapter 6 of the Constitution is real. You might be barred from running for an elective position due to such defamation. The enactment of this Bill is going to make people desist from giving wrong information. Recently, when the Controller of Budget gave information about the misuse of funds in this country, she became the peoples’ enemy number one. It is high time that, as legislators, we make laws that will help the righteous prince of this nation to move ahead. Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, it is only yesterday that we were enacting a Bill on Basic Education and I saw ourselves being enemies of our own. When you decide in a committee, a sub-county committee or a county committee of county education board that a Member of Parliament can only attend at will and has no power to vote. It is surprising. This is because we represent the National function at our level. If we do not have a right to vote, how then do we control or give right information to our people."
}