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{
    "id": 718818,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/718818/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 179,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. (Dr.) Nyikal",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 434,
        "legal_name": "James Nyikal",
        "slug": "james-nyikal"
    },
    "content": "increasing from six months to two years now. The other aspect of it that I have wondered is the amount of fee that is paid. You need Kshs200,000 to go to the Kenya School of Law. It is much more expensive now than to go to the University of Nairobi or any other university and get your first degree in law. There are many young lawyers who fail to go to the Kenya School of Law because they cannot afford the fees because some are poor. Their parents have been struggling to get them through university and they just end up doing jobs and cannot be advocates. I think the Council for Legal Education should look at that. What is it that is being done in the universities that actually, when you go to the Kenya School of Law, you do another two years? It makes me think that probably, the curriculum at the university, for example, at the University of Nairobi, is not adequate. However, I have asked some lawyers and they have said that they probably go into more details of what you have done. My bigger worry is that it has become a hindrance to some young people who would want to be advocates. That has been stated and I think that is something the legal profession should look into. I do support the need for categorisation of prisoners because some offences are actually really minor. It brings into my mind one particular issue where you have criminal offenders who have mental illnesses and they actually get confined at Mathari Mental Hospital. There is no provision as to when they will be released. Some are there for life and if they are mentally unwell and they have been treated and they are better, it is not probable that they should actually go to other prisons. However, as the situation is now, they linger there forever and actually become a great risk. I think that categorisation should look at that issue as well. I like the provision of the auctioneers and building their capacity and the provision for regulation of auctioneering services. Many people go through a lot of problems with auctioneers and that service needs to be regulated. There is also the issue of the Copyright Act. I agree that we need to amend that to provide for a structured compensation of performers and producers because this is one area where a lot of our people with talents never really get anything for themselves. In other countries, you see the royalties are well collected and the performers are fairly wealthy. However, I noted one issue that needs to be looked at in this Bill. There is a provision now that those who are trying to collect royalties are looking even in private homes and cars if there is something to be levied. That is because you have a disc player in your car and for that purpose, you are likely to play music and you should pay for that. I think that is not necessary. Let me make a contribution to reducing the age of consent to 16 for children. This is something we need to look at very seriously. Unfortunately, biological maturation is not always in tandem with social maturation. This has come about because people see children at the age of 16 looking biologically mature. It has to be remembered that socially, they are not mature and they cannot take responsibilities for the outcome of the biological activities that they will get into. As somebody has said, those are Form Two students and if we say that they are free to make those decisions, I think that is something we need to look into. We will go into details on that area and see if we need to amend it. I am happy that it has been realised that we need to make provisions for what can happen if both the Chief Justice and the Deputy Chief Justice are not in office and there is need for somebody to act. I raised this when we were appointing the first Deputy Chief Justice and I actually indicated that we will have a problem because of the age difference between the two. It actually happened and I am happy that we have now seen it and we are making amendments for that. 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."
}