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    "id": 665419,
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    "content": "detained or a person held under police custody – detention without trial was abolished by this Constitution – is denied access to medicine, that goes against Article 51(1) of the Constitution. Further, we know in the history of this country, of persons who have died as a result of being denied access to health. One was Mr. Adungosi who was a student leader at the university and who was detained. The other was Hon. Okello Odongo who was the first Member of Parliament (MP) for Kisumu Rural, who died in Kodiaga Prison because he could not access his hypertensive drugs. To add insult to injury, the late Mr. Otieno Ambala, who was under arrest and in prison awaiting trial for the alleged involvement in the murder of Mr. Owiti Ongili, also died as a result of not having access to his hypertensive drugs. Hon. Kenneth Matiba was mentioned yesterday. He suffered a stroke which disabled him as a politician as a result of not having access to his hypertensive drugs in detention. There are living examples of persons who have died as a result of being denied access to good health. Fortunately, this has now been dealt with in Article 51 of the Constitution but is currently being abrogated by this Government. The Chief Justice leaves the stage of leading the Judiciary in this Nation at a very sad time. I was telling him yesterday that we need him now more than ever. Unfortunately, he made a principled stand that he should give the Judiciary time to choose his successor when he is out, one year before he was due to leave. This makes a very sad reading of his other two colleagues, Justice Kalpana Rawal and Justice Tunoi, who although the Constitution is very clear on the retiring age, have dragged the Judiciary through a very painful process that we, as Senators, have watched with astonishment. We hope that as the saga ends, the Judiciary can move on to choose members of the Supreme Court through the JSC without much agony. The Chief Justice also leaves the Judiciary at a time when the lands and environment courts are still suffering from lack of efficiency. In the land and environment court, I know of a case which has dragged in court for 29 years and has not, as of now, been determined. I know of another case which has dragged in that court since 2008 and has not yet been determined. I have previously written to the Chief Justice about this particular one in Kisumu County, and I am told that the lands and environment courts are that inefficient because of lack of judges. I would imagine that after the Judiciary has been investing heavily in infrastructure, land and environment being so critical to the economy, because you cannot invest without access to land, the first division that should have been made very efficient was the land and environment courts. Many people are suffering. Indeed, some of the issues that we ourselves in the Committee on County Public Accounts and Investments encounter relate to land and environment in the counties, particularly issues related to assets of the county governments. If these courts were efficient, then county governments could take these cases there to be decided on expeditiously. The other issues that I want to draw the Chief Justice to, he said that he will write a book. I hope that contrary to what Sen. Murkomen said here earlier, I do not think the issues of the Court of Appeal decision in the year 2013 is an issue that we can talk about in terms of partisanship. This issue relates to the Constitution. Article 151 of the 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"
}