Entry Instance

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

{
    "id": 953993,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/953993/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 103,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Pareno",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13180,
        "legal_name": "Judith Ramaita Pareno",
        "slug": "judith-ramaita-pareno"
    },
    "content": "Mr. Speaker, Sir, I was going to say just that. Out of those cases you have an entire family in that prison there is a women’s' side and a man’s side on the other. This side you have the woman of the same family and the men on the other. In fact, when we asked them to raise their hands so that we see how many of them have relatives on both sides, over 20 raised their hands indicating that they had relatives on both sides of the prison. Therefore, something has to be done. I briefed the Senator for this county. There is something that needs to be done either some moral decay or something happening which is not right. You cannot have a prison of 700 people and out of those, the majorities are either murderers, rapists or alleged murders or rapists so that we do not condemn those who could be innocent. There is a very serious intervention required, maybe societal or cultural. I know there are a lot of interventions like for the Maasais, the moment you fight you do not reach the police station. You are punished there and then, you compensate immediately and there is reconciliation in the family. There is need for total reconciliation in as far as what we saw in this particular prison. Mr. Speaker, Sir, apart from that, there is the issue of congestion. The prison hall is supposed to hold about 400 people, it is holding over 700. There are so congested in such a way that it cannot be healthy. This Committee should go ahead and look at why we have so much harsh sentences from the courts. All of us were lawyers as we were standing there. We found those sentences to be too harsh and we ended up releasing so many using our own funds, over 50 as a way to intervene, some of them very desperate cases. I saw a child of about six months to one year with the mother, and suffering with the mother because of some of these things. This urgently needs a lot of intervention and will definitely make a difference now that we have come to Kitui."
}