Alfred Bwire

All parliamentary appearances

Entries 211 to 220 of 546.

• 22 Jun 2010 in National Assembly: Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, under Part 3, there is trial of offenders and remedies for victims of trafficking in persons. One of the most positive things is that it provides for confidentiality in cases of trafficking. For the first time, it provides for victim impact statement so that when a trafficker is being sentenced, the views of the victim must be heard. There is also restitution for victims and there is immunity from prosecution for the victim. Currently, what our laws provide is that if you are found to have been a victim of trafficking, you are punished instead ... view
• 22 Jun 2010 in National Assembly: Under Part 4, an Advisory Committee is set up that involves the Government, relevant Ministries including the Ministry of State for Immigration and Registration of Persons, Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Development, Ministry of State for Provincial Administration and Internal Security, Office of the Attorney-General, civil society organizations working with children and women, amongst many others. It sets up the functions of the committee which includes rehabilitation and advising the Government on programmes that have to do with trafficking in persons. view
• 22 Jun 2010 in National Assembly: Then Part 5 provides for the establishment of a fund for victims of trafficked persons and Part 6, which is miscellaneous, provides for extra-territorial jurisdiction, other penalties and consequential amendments. I want to show the seriousness that we have in stemming cases of sexual and gender-based violence against women and children. The penalties that are provided are very harsh, ranging from a minimum of ten years to life imprisonment for various sentences. I will not go into all of them. Again, I would like to say that the process of writing this Bill had support from the Ministry of Gender, ... view
• 22 Jun 2010 in National Assembly: Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, with those few remarks, I beg to move and call Mr. Wamalwa to second. view
• 22 Jun 2010 in National Assembly: Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, first, I would like to take this opportunity to thank all hon. Members for the support that they have given to this Bill and, by extension, to the children and women of Kenya who are usually the victims of trafficking in persons. I want to especially thank the Seconder, Mr. Wamalwa, who highlighted instances of trafficking and why Kenya is vulnerable as a transit and a source country for trafficking in persons. view
• 22 Jun 2010 in National Assembly: Mr. Duale, while contributing, highlighted a very important issue, which is the vulnerability of pastoral children to trafficking. In the research that I had mentioned earlier, we went to northern Kenya and that came up as a big issue. That many children, especially because of the porous nature of our borders in the northern regions of Kenya, are susceptible to trafficking in persons. The issue of early and forced marriages is a big issue in northern Kenya. We met one girl who was a victim of trafficking and had been returned back to her home courtesy of a former Member ... view
• 22 Jun 2010 in National Assembly: I also thank Dr. Laboso for mentioning the need for further research. That is true and at the point that we were undertaking the research, there was absolutely no prior research on trafficking in persons in Kenya. One of the things that we noted, based on that research, was in terms of awareness on the issue of trafficking, people tended to treat it more as a moral issue and not a legal issue. Due to that, many victims are trafficked in the glare of security forces without knowing something wrong is being done. One of the things that was very ... view
• 22 Jun 2010 in National Assembly: Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I also want to thank Mr. Baiya, especially for validating the experiences in Kenya by giving the experience from his own constituency of a child that was trafficked. One of the issues that has been raised by Eng. Rege is with regard to cyber space, especially on issues of Facebook and the concept of the “better life syndrome”. It is a big issue that, at the point we were dealing with the Bill of Trafficking in Persons, we debated whether we could concurrently deal with the issue of cyber crimes in relation to children. We ... view
• 22 Jun 2010 in National Assembly: I also acknowledge Mr. Njuguna. Thank you very much for, especially, bringing in the concept of kidnappings. I think for any Kenyan now, when you talk about kidnappings, it is a big issue. It is a shame that in this country, we have two persons who have confessed that they were kidnapping women and children right before our own eyes and we did not even know. Why? That is because as a country, we have become so individualistic that even when wrong things are happening around us, we cannot see or know. There are some things that you see happening ... view
• 22 Jun 2010 in National Assembly: I want to thank Ms. Mathenge who is the Minister in charge of this Bill. I want to thank her, especially for her suggestions of amendments that she has given. I think one was largely an oversight and we will take into consideration the suggestion she has made, especially the fact that, being the parent Ministry, it should be the secretariat for the advisory committee, and also the suggestion she has made in relation to the fund. I also want to thank her especially on the comments about africanising the Bill through the definition, including issues of armed conflict. I ... view