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{
    "id": 785963,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/785963/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 234,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. Mbui",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 1750,
        "legal_name": "Robert Mbui",
        "slug": "robert-mbui"
    },
    "content": "clause 2(c) says that legislation, like we are doing, shall not limit the right or freedom so far as to derogate from its core or essential content. Article 37 clearly says that every person has a right peaceably and unarmed to assemble, demonstrate, picket and to issue petitions to public authorities. For those reasons, I oppose this Motion. I think it is retrogressive. It is totally unconstitutional. It goes against Article 24(2)(c) of the Constitution. The purpose for petitions or demonstrations is obviously either somebody or people are aggrieved or they want to celebrate. That is the freedom given in the Constitution. When people are supposed to be now designated specific areas, it means that even the enjoyment of their right of freedom and pass on petitions is curtailed. When you say that you are going to designate, then where are we going to say that people are allowed to go? The minute you give a blanket cheque like this one, it means the law might say that now we are allowed to go and picket in the desert. How then will it be able to be effective? Clearly, the reason for demonstration…like my colleague has just talked about IEBC… When we were aggrieved about IEBC and we are told to go and picket somewhere in Karura Forest, what effect will it have on the officers who will be enjoying the comfort of their offices not knowing that Kenyans are aggrieved? If something like an accident occurs, like you have just said that careless drivers are killing goats and cows on the highway, the Maasai have a right to demonstrate and say that they are unhappy about the usage of the road and carelessness of the drivers. The issue that people do not get here is that the Government has a role to provide security. There is a difference between unarmed and peaceful demonstration and those ones which are violent. So if people are peaceful and unarmed, they should be allowed to demonstrate and picket in any corner of the country. When we talk about loss of property, I was involved in the celebrations when the Rt. Hon. Raila Amolo Odinga was coming back from Germany. I was part of the convoy that came to celebrate his grand return to the country. Unfortunately, it looks like the Jubilee regime does not want us to even celebrate the return of our hero. So they put blockades all over. We were attacked and beaten. People were killed. They broke my leg. Thank God I have recovered. I have been on crutches, now I am walking without them. Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, please protect me from the Deputy Leader of the Majority Party. If you look at those demonstrations, it is true that sometimes they get violent, but in the case I am speaking of, it was peaceful until the police started attacking. It was unfortunate because throughout the day the violence you saw was being meted out by the police against innocent Kenyans. They threw teargas. They shot at us. They threw stones at us. We have evidence to that effect. It is unfortunate that if we are peaceful and the police are violent then people who are picketing are supposed to be on the wrong. I want to ask that we withdraw this Motion in good faith for the sake of the citizens that we represent in this House and we allow them to picket as long as it is peaceful, as long as they are unarmed and as long as the police go to only keep peace and order, not to attack demonstrators. All of you have seen what has happened to our Kenyans. Right now as we talk about this, there are demonstrations in Kisumu because of the inhuman treatment meted out against a Kenyan by the name Dr. Miguna Miguna. It is so unfortunate. They are demonstrating where they are. If you say they should not demonstrate there and you pull them out of the highway, how will the world know that Miguna is being unfairly treated? How will the world know that this country can actually throw out a citizen and make him stateless in Dubai? Yet we all know that this is a Kenyan. He has stood for political office. This impunity has to come to an end. Members, irrespective of which side of the political divide you are, I think we have a role and responsibility to ensure that we move the country forward together. 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."
}