Kiraitu Murungi's Speech in Parliament 1997 - Must Read

[Omollo]

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There are some errors which you may easily detect and jump over without missing the substance of this very important speech

Mr. Murungi: Mr. Speaker Sir, thank you for giving me the opportunity to second this important Bill. Mr. Speaker Sir, I am very excited. This is the first day that I am seconding a Bill which is proposed by the Government. I am usually opposing almost all Bills!

Mr. Speaker Sir, first, let me thank the Attorney-General and his staff. I can see the Solicitor-General, Mrs. Nzioka and I do know that Mr. Steve Mwenesi also participated in the drafting of this Bill. They really worked very hard. They worked around the clock to translate all the recommendations of the IPPG into this Bill. As a trained draftsman, I know how difficult it is to put in the commas and sections in the right place. But we have to congratulate this team because it has really come up with a very good job this time.

Mr. Speaker Sir there is no drafting which is perfect. It is very difficult to find a Bill where you would not find a misplaced "comma", a "t" which is not crossed and so on. So, I am urging my colleagues in Parliament to be on the lookout for any grammatical errors, omissions and so on, which might be in this Bill. I also believe that Parliament should not abdicate its responsibility, and if there is room for improvement of the Bill, we should.

Mr. Speaker Sir, on a different note I would say that the Attorney-General has at last "woken up". We are now seeing the Attorney-General in his true colours as the champion of the human rights and democracy who is known all over the world!

(Applause)
 
Mr. Speaker Sir, it is the veteran freedom fighter Bildad Kaggia who said this about history. He said. 'You cannot wish away history. History is not what you want to happen. History is what has already happened' It will stay like that whether you like it a not! Mr. Speaker Sir, I have no doubt that we as IPPC have made history through this Bill and that history will remain and it will stay like that whether some people like it or not.

(Applause)

Mr. Speaker Sir I can tell you from personal experience that wherever we go we are being celebrated. Even the people we do not know are now coming out to greet us. They are coming out to congratulate us and to thank us for saving this country from chaos and Woodshed.
Mr. Shikuku: That must be remembered!

Mr. Murungi: Mr. Speaker Sir, we have made history because we refused to be dreamers. We refused to be romantic and adventurous. We chose to put our country Kenya first and ourselves second. That is why we have made this history. Mr. Speaker Sir, I believe that the majority of Kenyans want change. They want peaceful and orderly change. This is what we, at IPPG, are providing.

(Applause)
 
As you are aware, Mr. Speaker Sir, there have been numerous Press conferences, papers and public statements dismissing these reforms as hopelessly inadequate. You are also aware that we have been called "ugali-eaters", "con men', 'Tools" and "cowards", But I will take this opportunity to tell these "inventors" and "manufacturers of fiction" that in this country there are some Kenyans who are definitely not for sale. No amount of ugali, sukumawiki, irio or githeri will stand between us and reforms!

(Applause)
 
Mr. Speaker Sir, this controversy about reforms has not been about paragraphs sections and commas but it is much more fundamental. We as IPPG are aware that we can never satisfy a certain section of our political class. There is nothing we can do as IPPG which will be right in the eyes of some people. This is because the agenda of those people is different from ours.

(Applause)

Mr. Speaker, Sir, Kenyans know those of us who are generally committed to reforms. Kenyans also knew those 'just men" who are merely using the language of reforms to advance their own personal ambitions. Some people have been on television in this country saying that there can be no reforms so long as President Moi is in power. We are told that we have to remove President Moi first so that we can have genuine reforms. What method are we going to use to remove President Moi if we are busy burning the voters' cards? Those who are dreaming about "Kabila" should know that Kenya is a long way from Zaire. We, at IPPG, do not mind being called fools, traitors and "ugali-eaters" so long as we bring peaceful and orderly change in this country.
 
Mr. Speaker Sir, we are here on serious business. We have not come here to launch "hot-air balloons". The reforms that we are going to introduce will bring fundamental political changes in this country. Today, we have come here to say "Goodbye" to the dark days of colonialism and dictatorship in this country. As the Attorney-General said, we have come here to usher in a new as of freedom and democracy. What we are doing is to provide a framework and political space within which free and fair elections are going to be held in this country.
 
Those who want to remove President Moi, this is the only way which is available and that is free and fair elections. Let them prepare for devices. After these reforms, there will be no excuse for any Kenyan to engage in clandestine activities. There will be no excuse for coups de etat  in this country and there will be no excuse for underground politics.

I hear Prof. Ouma Muga who has served a jail sentence in the past for these underground activities telling me to say it again. We have opened all the avenues, so let the people come out and tight in open free and legal struggles.  Sometimes when we think about freedom and democracy, some people think only about one thing; they think about the elections. But freedom and democracy is much more than elections which only come once in five years. We have a broader concept of political participation. Political participation means the freedom to participate in making decisions which affect our everyday lives. What we are looking for is also freedom for our people to participate in making decisions freely at family level. When you are discussing breakfast with your children, you should be free to do so. When you go to work and you have a debate with your boss, you should also have freedom in that debate. You should have freedom at your place of work. Also, when you go for a drink in the evening, when you are chatting with your friends in bars you should also have freedom to express yourself. We are looking at freedom in this broad sense. Mr. Speaker Sir, those people who have just focused on elections are missing this whole point of greater freedom and democracy for our people. I think that this Bill will expand those freedoms.

(Applause)

Mr. Speaker Sir, although the Bill looks technical in terms of "delete', "insert', "put this comma, "renumber" et cetera, this is not a Bill merely of 'commas and full stops". It is a "major political surgery" in this country which involves 28 laws. When the "surgery is complete, we shall have removed a huge baggage of repression from the back of our people. So, we should see the amendments in this broader sense.

Mr. Speaker Sir, I am proud today because what I am saying is being recorded in the HANSARD and I will appear in the history of this country as one of those people who participated in removing the last yoke of colonialism from our people. Most of the 28 laws which are being repealed and amended are legacies of the oppressive and dictatorial colonial regime. Although we have been independent for the last 30 years or so, we have been ruled by colonial laws enacted by colonialists who are already in their graves. So, colonialism has been ruling us from the grave and we have now come to assert ourselves and say no to them. Most of these laws were enacted during the colonial era to facilitate colonial domination and exploitation of our people, and also to outlaw their political participation. These colonial statutes gave some of our civil savants, and especially in the Provincial Administration, very broad discretionary powers which turned our constitutional rights into mere concessions to be enjoyed at the whims of those officials. We have come to fine-tune those laws, to reduce those broad discretionary powers so that our people can enjoy the freedom which our fathers fought for.
 
Mr. Speaker Sir, I now wish to take a little more time to look at the specific pieces of legislation that we are reviewing. The Attorney-General took us through minute details of those pieces of legislation and my intention is to give the basis for that legislation, the mischief which the legislation was intended to address and also, what the effect of what we are doing would be as far as those laws are concerned. Mr. Speaker, Sir, let me begin with the most notorious one, and this is the Preservation of Public Security Act (Cap 571. This is the most unjust, cruel and oppressive piece of legislation in Independent Kenya. Detention without trial is a serious invasion of personal liberty, and of the fundamental freedoms of expression, assembly, association, amongst others.

You recall that detention without trial was first introduced in this country in 1897 - that is 100 years ago, under the authority given in the East African Order in Council. Unlike European countries where these laws were first enacted, the colonial government did not use detention without trial as an emergency measure. It was a political tool which was used by the colonial governor to oppress and restrict Africans who resisted colonial rule.

When we attained Independence in 1963, we abolished detention without trial along with the other emergency laws. Between 1963 and 1965, there was no person who was detained in this country. This is because there was no legal framework under which a person could be detained without trial. But in 1966, when the KPU was being formed, we looked for the colonial piece of legislation, dusted it up and re-enacted it as the Preservation of Public Security Act. In fact the provisions of the current Preservation of Public Security Act are borrowed directly from the Emergency Order in Council 1939.
 
You will note that the first victims of the Preservation of Public Security Act were the KPU leadership. The entire KPU leadership was detained in 1969 under the Preservation of Public Security Act, and Mzee Achieng-Oneko, if he is around, will remember this!
Mr. Achieng-Oneko: Aye! I hear you!

(Laughter)

[Omollo]

Mr. Murungi: Mr. Speaker Sir, the Act has been used to torture, punish and intimidate Kenyans who have spoken out against oppression and dictatorship in this country and sometimes things like corruption. You remember what happened to Hon. Anyona when he talked about corruption in 1970.

The list will have various characters like Messrs. Achieng-Oneko, Martin Shikuku, George Anyona and even Raila Odinga. Mr. Speaker Sir, hon. Raila Odinga should be with us today to celebrate the fact that we are abolishing detention without trial, because he has been one of the greatest victims of the Preservation of Public Security Act. He knows how oppressive this Act is and how much he suffered because of it. I had occasion to visit him both at Shimo-la-Tewa and at Naivasha prisons. So, Hon. Raila Odinga we are going to have a drink this evening because of this.

(Laughter)

Mr. Speaker Sir, let me move on to the Penal Code. What we have done is to delete Section 4 (2A) which provides for detention without trial, and also, you remember some people were placed under house arrest and restricted as a result of their political activities.

In 1982 when the late Jaramogi Oginga Odinga and Hon. George Anyona were coming to address a press conference at Hotel Inter-Continental to launch a new party, the Kenya Socialist Party, Hon. Anyona was detained. Mr. John Khaminwa who had drafted the constitution of that party was also detained. The late Oginga Odinga was placed under house arrest. Now, we have even abolished any provision for house arrest and restriction of persons on grounds of political opinion.

I am very happy that this will not occur again to people like the late Oginga Odinga and others, who want to exercise their democratic rights.

Mr. Speaker, Sir let me move on to the Penal Code Cap 53. The entire Penal Code is a colonial piece of legislation and I would appeal to the Attorney-General to give it a fresh look. This is because there are provisions in the Penal Code which make it a criminal offence for you to blacken yourself, in preparation for committing a crime: the assumption being you are a white person and are blackening yourself in preparation to commit a crime. We should not have provisions in independent Kenya where the majority of the people are black.

Mr. Speaker Sir, certain sections, especially Sections 52 and 56 of the Penal Code, severely curtail the freedom of expression which is contained in Section 79 of the Kenya Constitution. The most oppressive pans of this Code are contained in Section 52, which deals with prohibited publications and Sections 56 to 58 which deal with sedition.

Mr. Speaker Sir, Section 52 of the Penal Code gives the Minister broad discretionary powers to censor publications. According to that section, the Minister can declare any publication, including its past and future issues, a prohibited publication, if it appears to him necessary to do so in the interest of public order, public health, public morals or the security of Kenya. The Minister has exercised these powers in the past and has banned many books and restricted the freedom of information in this country. We have reached some ridiculous proportions in a provision in the schedule to the Penal Code, which empowers the Minister to ban or prohibit the importation of any publication, depicting or containing any symbol emblem, device, colours, slogans, mottos, words and letters signifying any association with, or support for a political object or political organisation. Under this provision, if you imported a publication from England bearing the flag of KANU on its cover it would be a prohibited publication because it will be containing an emblem associated with a political party.

The powers of the Minister to ban mottoed words especially associated with political associations or panics should be reviewed. I do remember that in August. 1978--- This case was reported on the 1st of August, 1978 in the Daily Nation, A teacher at Nyandarua High School called Mr. Dickson Otieno was imprisoned for 18 months for possessing the following books: I. Geography of China: 2. Wages Prices and Profits and 3. Arehaeological Findings in China. The reason why he was imprisoned was because these books were published by Foreign Languages Press: Peking and the publisher had been banned under the Section that I read to you.

I have gone through the list of banned publications, and it is quite clear that the list is a relic of Cold War politics. It has no relevance to the current political realities in this world. I am very happy that the Attorney-General has now agreed to set up a Board, which will be set up by this Bill, to review all these banned publications and see whether there is any need or relevance in prohibiting them. We feel that the amendments to Section 52 will increase the freedom of Kenyans to receive and impart ideas and information without unnecessary restrictions, and they are very welcomed.

Mr. Speaker Sir, with regard to sedition, the colonial government enacted sedition laws to insulate itself against any kind of criticism from Africans. There was no lawful way of criticizing the colonial government because Section 56 of the Penal Code controlled not only the content of the criticism but also the manner in which the criticism was expressed. If you criticized the Government in a manner which was likely to cause disaffection that was considered to be sedition even if the intention was honest and you wanted the Government to correct certain errors. The House will remember that in 1960 there was a Member of Parliament' called Mr. Lawrence Oguda. Mr. Oguda addressed a public rally in which he violently criticized the colonial Government and suggested that, the Governor must go. He not only lost his seat, but served several years in prison.

An hon. Member: For saying that the Governor must go?

Mr. Murungi: Yes!

Mr. Speaker Sir, he had not been very clear about the method in which he wanted the Governor to go. Sedition laws in this country could have been used even much more against us. You recall that one of our friends here hon. Aluoch Polo, has a case pending in court because of saying that: hii ni Serikali ya shetani Mr. Speaker Sir, we have repealed Sections 56, 57, and 58 of the Penal Code so that Kenyans can have freedom to criticize their Government.

Mr. Shikuku: Yet that is nothing!

Mr. Murungi: Mr. Speaker Sir, these sections which have been used to silence the critics of the Government, like hon. Gatabaki, are no longer going to be law in this country. So Mr. Gatabaki, wherever he is should be celebrating because all his sedition cases which are pending in court are going to be withdrawn after this Bill is enacted into law.

(Applause)

Mr. Speaker Sir, let me touch on the Public Order Act. The Public Order Act was introduced at the height of colonialism in this country as Act number 13 of 1950. For most of the colonial rule, in the 1920s, 1930s and 1940s, it was not necessary for any Kenyan to get a licence from a district commissioner to address a public rally. The licences became necessary in the 1950s during the greatest challenge to colonial rule by the Mau Mau organisation. It appears as if there was much more freedom to hold meetings in Kenya during the colonial period, in the 1940s, than there is in the 1990s.
 
Mr. Speaker Sir, in Independent Kenya and you remember the Motion by the late Marie Seroney in this House, this Act has been used to oppress and undermine elected Members of Parliament by denying them the right to address meetings even in their own constituencies. The Act has made nonsense of the freedom of assembly which is protected under Section 80 of the Kenya Constitution.

Our main problem with the Act has been Section 5 which gives the DC extensive powers to refuse or cancel licences for public rallies. The section also gives the DOs and police officers broad discretionary powers to stop meetings even after those meetings have been licensed. Mr. Speaker Sir, the worst sub-section of section 5 is sub-section ( which requires the DOs and the police to comply with any general or specific directions given by the President, Minister, the Provincial Commissioner or the Commissioner of Police. So when you hear the police on the ground and the DO talking about "orders from above," they are talking about either the President, the Minister, the PC or the Commissioner of Police. It is this section that has been so much abused and used in stopping meetings, even those which are lawfully held; so much to the anger of the people that you remember the open fights which people have had with the police in places like Mwea.

Mr. Speaker Sir, we in the Opposition have really suffered under this Act. You will remember that hon. Wamalwa Kijana has been shot at, and there was an attempt to shoot hon. Kibaki. It is the police who refused to shoot him. We have been whipped and clobbered: our seminars have been dispersed: our "meet-the-people tours" have been stopped, and this also applies to some of our brothers in KANU. You will remember that after killing so many bulls, last December. hon. ole Ntimama had problems in eating them, because he did not have a licence.
 
(Laughter)

Mr. Speaker Sir, even some KANU meetings organized by some of our colleagues in KANU and Assistant Ministers, they have gone to a meeting to find a DC, a chief or a DO telling them, "sorry, the meeting has been cancelled?
 
Today, I think, we are all going to celebrate; those in KANU and the Opposition, because there will be no licences, there will be no chief, there will be no DO, there will be no DC or PC to stop our meetings.

(Applause)

[RV Pundit]

Thanks Omollo for this. Those days Kiraitu was something. I use to admire him and Kibaki..being a DP member by the virtue of my father.Kiraitu was infact  in FORD_Kenya  and joined DP in 97 post IPPG.Those days Kiraitu could write a biography and proclaim his only asset wa a 2 acre farm in Meru. He was content as intellectual nationalist then. Now after feeding in Kibaki's  our time to eat he became billionaire tribal king and i parted ways with DP.

[Omollo]

Money did spoil him. At one time he had KANU deeply worried. He was the nightmare candidate. They feared Kibaki might decided to stand back and back him. I recall a panic brainstorming session where various options were discussed. we learned that he had a weakness for alcohol, beautiful women but never seemed to have enough money. He had tabs all over the city. And that was the end of him or the beginning of the end. It would look like whoever took the job of containing him did it thoroughly

Thanks Omollo for this. Those days Kiraitu was something. I use to admire him and Kibaki..being a DP member by the virtue of my father.Kiraitu was infact  in FORD_Kenya  and joined DP in 97 post IPPG.Those days Kiraitu could write a biography and proclaim his only asset wa a 2 acre farm in Meru. He was content as intellectual nationalist then. Now after feeding in Kibaki's  our time to eat he became billionaire tribal king and i parted ways with DP.

[RV Pundit]

Min of Energy deals changed him.He ate too much too quickly the mouth even got twisted literally.

Money did spoil him. At one time he had KANU deeply worried. He was the nightmare candidate. They feared Kibaki might decided to stand back and back him. I recall a panic brainstorming session where various options were discussed. we learned that he had a weakness for alcohol, beautiful women but never seemed to have enough money. He had tabs all over the city. And that was the end of him or the beginning of the end. It would look like whoever took the job of containing him did it thoroughly

[Omollo]

That is what I normally ask people: Your person and money is there a choice really? Here is a brilliant man. He was poor but highly respected. He opted to eat and lost respect even as earned huge amounts. I wonder if he sleeps. He was a known wife beater since time immemorial. A guy who arrives home and announces he is tired nobody say anything and then goes to bed. People forgave him for all those occasions he beat the wife to sleep outside the gate with watchman to protect her from all dangers.

Look at this speech. Shikuku himself and Oneko cheered him. No mean feat where Shikuku was known for suffering no stupidity in the house from anybody especially the "educated". If only you could ask Saitoti what he underwent under Shikuku.

What a pity if Murungi ended up advising Uhuru that he could eat this puke from 1997

Min of Energy deals changed him.He ate too much too quickly the mouth even got twisted literally.

[Mr Mansfield.]

Incisive and inspiring,I could just feel the passion in Kiraitu while reading the piece,

Without Prejudice.

[vooke]

1 Timothy 6:10 (KJV)
For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.

Jubilee has enough cash to buy anyone and everything. They have deeper pockets than Kifacki. We really need Jesus Christ

[jakoyo]

The day Raila leaves the scene , Kenya will morph into some Eritrea or North Korea. Rwanda will look like a beacon of democracy.