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{
    "id": 749800,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/749800/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 130,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. Maanzo",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 2197,
        "legal_name": "Daniel Kitonga Maanzo",
        "slug": "daniel-kitonga-maanzo"
    },
    "content": "A prison officer can easily be attacked by inmates. A police officer can be attacked even while walking home so long as they are in uniform or if they are walking alone and someone snatches their gun. Their lives in a way are in danger even by having a police car. There are occasions where there are confrontations with the law breakers and you find that a police officer has lost his leg or an arm but compensation becomes very difficult. It is even worse when they lose their lives. I have had many occasions to take widows to Government offices following up claims of their late husbands. They have children who are in school and they do not have school fees. Just a few days before officers lose their lives, their families were well but as soon as they are gone the Government officers in charge of them abandon them. This sort of law seems to be very good so that we can have a mechanism and a budget. As much as this law is important, at the Committee of the whole House stage, we will have to amend it a little bit because it has not solved the problems. In fact, there should be a compulsory cover for these officers and the compensation should be implemented immediately after the injury or loss of life. It should not take years for such an officer to be compensated. It should not take years for families to be compensated. It should be a compulsory cover by a known insurance company in Kenya, where they are likely to be compensated immediately. Here in Parliament, we are served promptly. You know what happens in such situations. It is very efficient. It should be transferred to different sectors of the public service because we are public servants too. Any public servant should be accorded the same privilege, especially in the disciplined forces, where they sacrifice their lives to die for us in the line of duty and to protect our country. This sort of insurance would be very good. It would go a long way to make sure that families do not suffer in the event of occasions like that. There would be further proposals, and I am going to bring some, at the Committee of the whole House stage, so that we can make this law even better. It is a good proposal that needs to be made better so that we can seal the loopholes and the payment of compensation to be effected immediately. If you still leave it within the police service, it is still not efficient. There has to be an outsourced professional or insurance body to act immediately after verifying the facts and upon presentation of documentation, whether the person has lost their life or upon assessment of the injury. In fact, there are known judgments or standards in terms of the likely compensations when, for instance, somebody has lost a leg. There are court decisions on that which can guide this process. There are also decisions in the event of death of such a person, loss of expectation of life, pain and suffering. Some can get injured and then they do not pass on immediately. Somebody lives in pain for a year. Surely that should be compensated. It happens in other scenarios where similar injuries occur to normal Kenyans and there are precedents which show how much such a situation should be compensated. This is a good law. It works for our forces. It should be expanded to all forces. An insurance cover is sufficient, but it must be made compulsory. You should not just say that the commission shall compensate a member of the family or members of the service as the case may be, who lose their lives or suffer disability while exercising service or training. In fact, the idea of training has been mishandled in other departments. When they are still on training, there has been an argument whether they are validly employed or not. At what point are they employed by the service? Those questions have been raised before. A lot of times there is a form in the forces where you leave the name of your next of kin to be compensated. There are situations where when a young man joined the force, the next of kin was his mother or father. While in the process, they get married. They may change or not change. In a lot of situations, a lot of them do not change after getting married and the wives are not indicated as the next of kin. So, this 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."
}