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{
    "id": 720068,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/720068/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 99,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. Bunyasi",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 2511,
        "legal_name": "John Sakwa Bunyasi",
        "slug": "john-sakwa-bunyasi"
    },
    "content": "operate knowing that you cannot do anything to them. You would be unable to extract information. I think we need a balance. These people must be separated from society if they are going to become wilful criminals all the time. If we go this way, we run the risk of doing what we did some few years ago when our prisoners had three square meals and clean, washed uniforms. They had access to television and yet the societies which they come from do not have any of those. In a sense you can almost say that there is an incentive to be taken in because when you go in you will be fed, clothed and even allowed to follow the news globally. We need a balance. I do not see that balance here; I see a strong attempt to catch up with others. However, we are catching up with people who are in societies where there are alternative ways of finding out what those people are doing. In those countries, criminals’ records can be accessed easily. Those countries have better surveillance and tracking systems. We do not have those. So, we run the risk of legalising the protection of criminals. We must think seriously about that. Hon. Speaker, I am concerned about a trend that we have seen lately. I have not looked at the crime statistics to be sufficiently quantitative, but we have seen this in Busia County, in Butula to be specific. The Administration Police – they are not the only ones – handle suspects in a bad way and these leads to deaths of the suspects. If you watched television last week, there were a number of cases like that. I know that this is excessive abuse of power and there is need for some protection. I think that we still need to sit back a little bit, as we go through these stages, and determine whether we have the right balance. We are supposed to protect society from harmful people. We are supposed to protect that society in a way that those who do harm can be identified and incarcerated if it is so decided by the court process. So, it is that lack of balance that bothers me. Whereas on one hand we have to restrain police from torture, on the other hand, we do not want to cover criminals who would otherwise be in the judicial system. I think we ought to have better use of resources. I do not know if we need to increase the amount of money allocated for this purpose. This will ensure that there is sufficient training, upgrading and teaching of police officers so that they are in a position to evaluate how they should react. You find cases - I call them simple cases - of illegal brewers being arrested in the villages, but when they are freed you realize they are missing their teeth. It is because of the poor way they are handled. They are beaten when they do not part with some money. I think we have a serious problem there. I think that better training will equip these people both mentally and in capacity. That way, they would be able to know how to extract information without resorting to crude means. All in all, I think it is a Bill that is needed. I just think that we need to make amendments to improve that balance."
}