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{
    "id": 901319,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/901319/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 358,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Kitui Central, WDM-K",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Makali Mulu",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 1955,
        "legal_name": "Benson Makali Mulu",
        "slug": "benson-makali-mulu"
    },
    "content": "to prepare regulations so that we have a smooth operationalisation of the Act. As a Committee, we did not have an issue with this. I urge Hon. Members to support us so that we allow the CS to come up with regulations which will be approved by the Committee on Delegated Legislation. On the second Act, that is the Alcoholic Drinks Control Act, we got submissions from one stakeholder. The focus on this amendment is making reference to the definition of a magistrate so that that definition of a magistrate in the Act has the same meaning as that in the Magistrates Court Act, 2015. The aim is not to have a difference in the way we define the word magistrate. The submission which came from the stakeholder was saying that by this kind of definition, what will happen is when it comes to issues of alcoholic drinks, then it will restrict magistrates who can handle these cases to only magistrates who are above what they call the Resident Magistrate or the senior level magistrates. As a Committee, we took time to debate on this and our agreement was that alcoholic drinks issues need to be handled by magistrates who have a bit of experience. So, we are in agreement with the amendment even though initially the comments from the stakeholders were like we need to open this to all the magistrates. On that note, as a Committee, we still believe we need to restrict this kind of cases to magistrates who have a bit of experience. We will agree with that when it comes to the Third Reading. The third one is the Prevention of Terrorism Act, 2012. It has three components. The first amendment is bringing in those who will sit on the board of that Centre so that it is clear. We have discussed as a Committee and realised that this Counter Terrorism Centre might not be exhaustive in terms of listing who will sit on that board. Instead of listing everybody, we want to list the main parties and then have a paragraph which states that anybody else who might be relevant might be invited on the basis of the issue being discussed. We have noted that they have left out a new outfit in this country which is quite important. This is the Coast Guard Service which has just been established. The Coast guards will take care of our territorial waters, more so the area between our land and the ocean which is not taken care of by the Navy. That one is key in ensuring that we also sort out issues of terrorism. We need to include that one because that is part of their work. We are removing others like the Kenya Wildlife Services. We will have a statement which says that on need basis, other institutions can be invited when there is an issue to be discussed. We will be proposing amendments to that, as a Committee, so that we make it clearer and open more room for other specialised bodies to be invited. The other bit is the issue of the 4C that has generated a lot of interest from the stakeholders. I want to single the non-governmental organisations (NGOs) who are dealing with human rights issues. In addition to them being registered by the body which registers the NGOs, there is a requirement that they need to be approved by this Counter Terrorism Centre. The argument is that that will cause a lot of bureaucracy. It will be almost impossible to register such bodies. The argument was that we should only register the NGO and then they report to the Counter Terrorism Centre. Looking keenly at this amendment, there is no requirement for official registration. This Centre will need to be aware of all the non-governmental organisations that are involved in counterterrorism activities. Regularly, they may be requested to report on their activities by the Counter Terrorism Centre. This makes a lot of sense because nobody will vet them. Once you are registered as a body which deals with counterterrorism issues, you will be required to work closely with this Centre for purposes of harmonising the activities and ensuring that information is shared across 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."
}