Entry Instance

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

{
    "id": 91180,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/91180/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 150,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Prof. Ongeri",
    "speaker_title": "The Minister for Education",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 124,
        "legal_name": "Samson Kegeo Ongeri",
        "slug": "samson-ongeri"
    },
    "content": " Thank you, Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker. Yes, we are in the era of reform and surely enough, reform must come. But that reform is not without a cost. It has a cost element. I think my hon. Members and colleagues will realize and appreciate that where we are today as a nation, there are emerging sophisticated and very difficult crimes being committed in this country. You cannot ask the police in the current status in which they are to confront these crimes with this kind of meagre financial support. I think it will be too much asking of them. We need, first of all, to equip them so that they can be up-speed with the current sophistication of crime, the way we see it. These emerging crimes are beginning to be a threat to all national securities not only in Kenya but all over the world. If you look at the rate at which the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) is developing, the sophistication of crime along this line alone is so enormous that if we still continue saying that the money we have given the police is enough and, therefore, let them first of all prove what they are able to do for us to be able to add more, I think it will be a wrong end of the stick. We should confront the situation head-on. I am saying this from a position of strength because we had a great challenge during the national examinations. We were confronted by computer errors and other such ICT problems. To unravel this, we needed equally up-speed and up-to-date police officers who could handle this. I want to congratulate them because we have been able to reduce the rate of cheating in examinations to a manageable level. We hope that one of these days, we will zero-rate them. So, I am one of those who fully support that the financial support to the police force should be enhanced. Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, all of us are beneficiaries of new districts, locations or sub-locations in one form or another. These stations should be adequately funded in order to be able to deliver services to the mwananchi . It is not easy to detect what I call petty crime. But the assistant chiefs and chiefs through the Provincial Administration can take care of these things, including the small boundary quarrels and theft of cows between one neighbour and another. They may look petty but, yet, very important and essential for the livelihood of those who live in those areas. I think this Parliament, through this budgeting process, must come into terms--- Just like I also complain of not getting sufficient resources in order to run the education system, I think it is also equally the same in saying that the Ministry of State for Provincial Administration and Internal Security should be given adequate resources to run this very critical security agency. Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, I am worried that drug peddling in this country is causing loss of lives, so much so that even the very security agents who are supposed to be doing surveillance on this drug peddling are themselves victims of the crime. Recently, we had a National Security Intelligence Service (NSIS) officer who was shot dead in Mombasa for doing his duty. What morale do we give these officers when they are carrying out their duties diligently other than supporting them in the budgetary provisions? It does not matter how long it takes, but as long as the ICT is developing, we have a sophistication of crime in this country that we need to train an efficient and effective police force. That is how the reform agenda comes in. Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, with those few remarks, I beg to support."
}