Entry Instance

HTTP 200 OK
Allow: GET, PUT, PATCH, DELETE, HEAD, OPTIONS
Content-Type: application/json
Vary: Accept

{
    "id": 783224,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/783224/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 56,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. Ng’ongo",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 110,
        "legal_name": "John Mbadi Ng'ong'o",
        "slug": "john-mbadi"
    },
    "content": "Thank you, Hon. Deputy Speaker. First, I want to register my congratulations and thanks to Hon. Omar Maalim for bringing this Motion which my colleagues have been supporting and hailing as a very important Motion. I want to start by saying that Kenya has been hailed as one of those countries with a very progressive Chapter on the Bill of Rights. Chapter Four of our Constitution starting from Article 19 all the way to 59 is on the Bill of Rights. Article 41 of the Constitution which talks about labour relations is a right that we all enjoy as Kenyans. However, we must accept that the police service is one of those categories of Kenyans, who have been denied, by operation of Article 24 of the Constitution, the full enjoyment of these rights. They are entitled to reasonable working conditions, but cannot form, join or participate in the activities and programs of a trade union. Any Kenyan can go on strike, but the police service cannot and many other rights which other Kenyans enjoy. The understanding, therefore, was that there must be a way through which as a people we can protect this category of Kenyans, who serve in the disciplined forces where they are required by law not to realise full enjoyment of the basic human rights and the Bill of Rights. I agree with my colleagues that we see a lot of things happening to our brothers and sisters who are in police service like committing suicide and killing each other. This is because their living conditions are deplorable and as a consequence of some failure. I can remember in 2008, we embarked on a process that was supposed to bring this country back to normalcy. One of the agenda items was Agenda Four, which included reforms in the police service. As we discuss this Motion which is restricted to police officers working in Northern Kenya, the failure to recognise police officers and make their lives comfortable is actually a consequence of the stalled process on police reforms. We created commissions. In fact, the people of Kenya decided to create a fourth Arm of Government. We were used to have three Arms of Government, the Judiciary, Legislature and Executive, but the people of Kenya felt that these three Arms of Government were not serving them well and created a fourth one in the name of commissions. We created the National Police Service (NPS), which is chaired by Mr. Kavuludi. You will agree with me that as we speak, this Commission is dead. It is not serving this country in a way that we expected it to work. I do not know whether Kavuludi is convinced that there is value for money that he is giving Kenyans as he sits in that office. That is the problem with us Kenyans. You sit in an office even when you are personally convinced that you are not adding any value. I would like to tell Mr. Kavuludi and his team that the Commission is such an important one. If you realise that you have reached your limit, please, just exit and allow Kenyans to look for another person to serve them as envisaged in the Constitution. The police reforms have completely stalled. The things that you see happening in this country… Sometimes we condemn the police force as a whole, but you should ask yourself: If a police officer can take a gun and shoot a university student or someone’s child in cold blood, is there not something wrong? I will keep on repeating that there must be something that this officer is doing; either he is protesting or there must be something seriously affecting the police officer. I am happy that the person who is chairing the Departmental Committee on Administration and National Security is someone I have a lot of respect for. I know Hon. Keynan is someone who is up to the task. He is a sober-minded person. There is this recent problem that is facing the police service. The police officers are suffering in silence. Their bosses are so arrogant. I watched one of their bosses speaking in the media and I realized that he is dismissive. The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposes only. Acertified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor."
}