Kenneth Odhiambo Okoth

All parliamentary appearances

Entries 521 to 530 of 979.

• 23 Feb 2016 in National Assembly: Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, outer space treaties is a very important section that has potential for Kenya. The framework for the law under the policy has been The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor. view
• 23 Feb 2016 in National Assembly: delayed for too long. This is in the President’s Report. I just wanted to highlight that. The San Marco Space Station in Malindi is generating a lot of revenue for the European Space Project and very little for Kenyans. The Ministry of Defence and the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology need to come together and see how our proper control and agreements for the San Marco Space Station can give us revenues to also fund our own space programme and education. With those few remarks, I beg to second. view
• 17 Feb 2016 in National Assembly: Thank you, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker. It is my pleasure to rise in support of the Legal Aid Bill for myself and members of Parliament who represent places like Kibra and other urban constituencies. It is going to be a Bill that comes in very handy as we fulfill the requirements of Article 50 of the Constitution. view
• 17 Feb 2016 in National Assembly: You will find that in places where Kenyans do not have enough money, chances of getting justice are very limited. This is because if you do not have a good lawyer, the court process is very confusing. Some things that actually should be diverted and do not make it to court because they could be taken to alternative dispute resolutions end up being contentious court issues. I am excited that this Bill is before us and I am happy to support it. We have required the Legal Aid Bill and framework for a very long time. Access to justice, equal ... view
• 17 Feb 2016 in National Assembly: On the Government side, there has been a pilot programme which has been very fruitful and encouraging - the National Legal Aid and Awareness Programme. This programme has shown the need to go ahead and do this. So, I want to thank all the stakeholders in the Government who have taken part in that. I am concerned about a number of things in the Bill. I would like to speak to them just now. I am sorry. Some of us are digital and I need to look at some of the notes. I am not reading a speech because these ... view
• 17 Feb 2016 in National Assembly: The National Legal Aids Service that is envisioned under this Bill will do many important things. We must make sure that it is set-up in a way that it will be managed well and that all people who are illegible can get support from it. When I look at the Bill, section by section and detail by detail I have a number of things that I think could be improved. One of them is on Section 7 of the Bill that talks about the functions of the service which will be to The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report ... view
• 17 Feb 2016 in National Assembly: advise the Cabinet Secretary on matters relating to legal aid in Kenya. It is not clear which Cabinet Secretary we are referring to in this new dispensation because we only have the Attorney-General and a Solicitor-General. We do not have the Ministry of Justice and the Cabinet Sectary for Justice and Legal Affairs. That is something we need to talk about, whether it will be easy to advise the President, the Chief Justice and the Government in general. That is the question that needs to be asked. I know the Bill has been in the pipeline for many years and ... view
• 17 Feb 2016 in National Assembly: Clause 9 of the Bill talks about administration. Those are the same things that I would like to echo and they have been said by Hon. Abdulswamad, the Member for Mvita. It says that the chairperson of this board shall be a person appointed by the President. This is the case and yet this is a judicial and justice issue. Why should that not be changed to say that the chairperson of this board shall be appointed by the Chief Justice because it is a legal sector issue? view
• 17 Feb 2016 in National Assembly: Secondly, most of the people listed there will be representatives of different agencies of Government. Where is the two-thirds gender rule in this?. I think we need to have an amendment that says that the board shall be constituted in a manner that reflects the Article of the Constitution on the two-thirds rule. We do not want to end up with a board that will be purely made of male, female or unbalanced. It needs at the very least to meet a two-thirds gender requirement. So, it will be up to that board and the nominating bodies to see how ... view
• 17 Feb 2016 in National Assembly: If you look at Clause 9(c), you will find that it also talks about a Principal Secretary in the Ministry responsible for matters relating to legal aid. This is the case and yet the Ministry of Justice does not exist. So, we need to ask ourselves what that really means because part (f) talks about the Attorney-General or his representative. So, we may end up with the Attorney-General having two slots to cater for parts (c) and (f) or his representatives. That is something to be concerned about. view