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{
    "id": 936125,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/936125/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 246,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. M. Kajwang’",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13162,
        "legal_name": "Moses Otieno Kajwang'",
        "slug": "moses-otieno-kajwang"
    },
    "content": "Allow me to comment on only two issues out of that report. One is on the work of the Committee on matters to do with prisons and borstal institutions. In the 11th Parliament, the Chairperson, who happens to be the distinguished nephew of Sen. Wetangula---. I take note that the distinguished nephew is now on the Chair. The Committee on Justice, Legal Affairs and Human Rights is dealing with the Prisons Act. It is going around prisons in this Republic to ensure that they conform to the requirements of the 2010 Constitution. However, in the 11th Parliament, I was the Vice-Chairperson of a select Committee that was constituted by this House which was chaired by Sen. Dullo. We went around borstal institutions. We went to Shikusa, Shimo la Tewa, Kamiti and Kodiaga. We even took a foreign trip to Sweden to see how the correctional facilities and services were. We came up with a draft report and a draft Bill. I want to encourage the Committee on Justice, Legal Affairs and Human Rights, to pick the good things from what we did in the 11th Parliament and fast track the enactment and amendment of the Borstal Institutions Act. This is because, as we speak and do all the analysis and public participation, the fact remains that we only have two borstal institutions in this Republic; that is Shikusa and Mama Ngina. There was an effort to establish a borstal institution at Kamiti, but it is not considered a serious one. A borstal institution is a place where juvenile offenders are detained; it is not approved school. All these children who are being jailed by our courts as sexual offenders or as petty juvenile thieves are not taken to Kodiaga Maximum Prison or Kamiti Maximum Prison, yet we only have two borstal institutions with a very limited capacity. We need to be fair to the youth of this country. We need to look at these institutions as correctional rather than punishment centers. I urge the Committee not to take another two years. We already made very good recommendations and came up with a draft Bill. Take it and bring it out to the public domain, enact it so that we can open the way for establishment of other borstal institutions and the proper reform of correctional facilities."
}