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{
    "id": 675044,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/675044/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 155,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. (Ms.) Duri",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 1039,
        "legal_name": "Halima Ware Duri",
        "slug": "halima-ware-duri"
    },
    "content": "Thank you very much, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, for identifying me to speak this morning. Actually, I am talking from the experience I have as far as this issue is concerned. Security in Kenya starts with village elders. Village elders are quite important as far as collection of security and intelligence is concerned. They guide even the chiefs on the issues they are supposed to solve. They handle boundary disputes on farms and family disputes before they reach the chiefs or the Assistant County Commissioner. By the time the matters reach higher levels, like the ACC‟s office, the ACC will already have got the information from that particular village. The only problem we have is that we are good at starting something but very poor at finishing. We started community policing, which really helped Kenya in sharing of security information. Community policing just died because of poor facilitation. The same is happening to the village elders. As far as facilitation is concerned, they are demoralised. Nobody speaks about the facilitation of these village elders. We only recruit them so that they work for us. They are very important especially in areas which have foreign visitors who are criminals. They are very good at collecting intelligence and taking it to the right place. See our country today, we do not know who sleeps in a certain home or which people live in the next village. Bad people enter villages and live there because of not facilitating these village elders. So, this group is very important. They guide chiefs and assistant chiefs and provide them with information before it reaches the regional officers. If they are trained, they will be very good at keeping information. We should rely on them as Kenyans. This group is also the link between the communities within their areas and the Government. They are very familiar with their areas more than the new officers who were posted from elsewhere to those particular villages. They are more familiar with the area than the new officers who are posted from elsewhere. They can give the right information if properly used. The Government should have a policy for village elders and community policing for better security in this country. If we do not do so, then we will have foreigners coming in and out of the country simply because we do not have proper people at the grassroots to give us the information. Security starts with our village elders. We should facilitate and make them happy so that they can work for us. If they are not facilitated, then we will continue having problems. Thank you, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker for recognising and picking me to speak on this issue."
}