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{
    "id": 936240,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/936240/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 361,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. M Kajwang’",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13162,
        "legal_name": "Moses Otieno Kajwang'",
        "slug": "moses-otieno-kajwang"
    },
    "content": "make them stand trial in the contemporary courts in Uganda, send all of them to the International Criminal Court (ICC) or use a traditional approach. Eventually, the Acholi, the community which was mostly affected opted to go for a traditional dispute resolution system called mato oput . This helped because there was nothing to do to these children. They were born in normal lives, abducted by the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) soldiers and converted into soldiers and became killing machines. Were they to be taken to court and charged with treason? If so, they would have filled correctional facilities with people who have been victims of a complicated situation that they found themselves in soon after their birth. We must look into this. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, our own civil strife in the post-election violence that we saw, not everything needs to be dragged to courts of law. Right now, in the case of six gentlemen who lost their lives in a moment of madness in Bumula, will the entire village be rounded up and taken to court, charged with murder and taken to prison? We must think through this. There are those of us who believe that the devil descended on that village. How do you explain six people killed in broad daylight in a span of ten minutes? Will we send the Director of Criminal Investigation (DCI) in his usual characteristics bravado followed by the Director of Public Prosecution (DPP) to hold the entire village into prison? Probably, we will not. If we had a proper framework for alternative dispute resolution, we would say that may be there could be some cleansing approaches that fit within the traditional dispute resolutions. There could be some issues of reconciliation between the communities that are involved. Finally, Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, intergovernmental relations do not need to be taken to court as the first option. I was convinced that the Council of Governors (CoGs), through the National Treasury, had come up with a version of a Bill that will give effect to Article 187 of the Constitution which talks of intergovernmental relations and particularly, which will deal with circumstances where there is a breach of trust or agreement between the two levels of Government. This is because it is expensive for Government to sue each other. The saddest thing that we have seen in the County Public Accounts and Investments Committee is that every year, we struggle to appropriate more funds to go to counties. You were part of the mediation Committee and you know how difficult it was to convince the entire nation that counties needed more money. If you go back to the budget of counties and you will see how much they spend on litigation. Sometimes, the county government is suing the national Government or a Senator, like in the case of Kakamega County, where the Senator was sued by the county government because he said a County Executive Committee (CEC) Member was incompetent. So, the Senator and the Deputy Speaker were sued by the county government using public funds which the Senator has advocated to be released. Some things are comical even in our case. We walked all the way to Milimani to seek some judicial interpretation on relations between the Senate and the Executive. If we had a proper structure for alternative dispute resolution, it would have helped. The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor, Senate."
}