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"id": 1496912,
"url": "http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1496912/?format=api",
"text_counter": 134,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Sen. Ogola",
"speaker_title": "",
"speaker": null,
"content": "We do not want to create gods for our people who are already disadvantaged. If you have a funeral, allow people to collect money with the people who believe in the problem that they have and let them support them. If you want to put regulations and give somebody power to give a clearance, we will be creating mini gods who will decide when you will have a problem or need to solve this problem. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, there is a practise where leaders have to get clearance from elsewhere to hold certain public functions. We have had very embarrassing situations, where the person who hold the power to make clearance decide who holds a function and who does not hold. I want to say that giving is in the heart; it is not how much you give. Let us allow our people the space to give. Let us not call a dog a bad name in order to kill it. Let us not kill the spirit of harambee, but go by the Chapter Six that talks about leadership and integrity. By observing that chapter, we will have done a lot of good to the harambee process. We must also caution leaders who, once they are in position, power gets into their head. I do not have any reason anybody would fly in choppers with bags of money and provoke Kenyans. Specifically, that is what even fanned more of the Gen Z problem, because we had young people with no jobs and they were seeing people flying in this country with money. I support the harambee spirit as was initiated by our forefathers because that is how a number of people have been supported in education. That is a way in which a number of churches and schools were put together. That is how some of the school buses that we see around were bought. Hon. Members have given donations and deposits, but the parents in the school and the surrounding communities are always supported by the harambee spirit. As I end my speech, let us not abuse harambee, but enrich it. Let us encourage that people are able to contribute the little they have that it is voluntary. Giving is in the heart, not how much one gives."
},
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"id": 1496913,
"url": "http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1496913/?format=api",
"text_counter": 135,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Sen. Abdul Haji",
"speaker_title": "The Temporary Speaker",
"speaker": null,
"content": " Proceed, Sen. Orwoba."
},
{
"id": 1496914,
"url": "http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1496914/?format=api",
"text_counter": 136,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Sen. Orwoba",
"speaker_title": "",
"speaker": null,
"content": "Thank you, Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir. Allow me to start by engaging the House. When you hear any one saying, “haraaaaambee”, what is the first thing that you answer or think of? Of course, Nyayo. Let us not lie to ourselves because we can speak, but this spirit of harambee was even a political declaration. ‘Harambee’ means let us pull together our resources; let us come together and follow the footsteps of an individual. That is what we are referring to as forefathers. Nevertheless, I want to pose a question. This ‘harambee Nyayo’ came in the 1900s when I was not yet born. Perhaps Sen (Dr.) Oburu can guide us on when harambee was born and we said ‘Nyayo,’ meaning ‘to follow the footsteps.’ Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, the reason why I start there is so that we can stop lying to ourselves that Harambee--"
},
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"id": 1496915,
"url": "http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1496915/?format=api",
"text_counter": 137,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Sen. Abdul Haji",
"speaker_title": "The Temporary Speaker",
"speaker": null,
"content": " Gloria, do you want to be informed by Sen. (Dr.) Oburu? The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Director, Hansard and AudioServices, Senate."
},
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"id": 1496916,
"url": "http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1496916/?format=api",
"text_counter": 138,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Sen. Orwoba",
"speaker_title": "",
"speaker": null,
"content": "Yes. You know, he is our youth representative and he was alive during that time."
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"id": 1496917,
"url": "http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1496917/?format=api",
"text_counter": 139,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Sen. (Dr.) Oburu",
"speaker_title": "",
"speaker": {
"id": 194,
"legal_name": "Oburu Ngona Odinga",
"slug": "oburu-odinga"
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"content": "Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, I want to inform my sister that this spirit of harambee started just when our Independence was at the corner. There was an old man in Kisumu called Mulu Harambee and he used to call harambee for people to come and pull a rope together. There is a book written by Owino Obundo about the harambee spirit. So, Mzee Kenyatta picked it after he was released from detention and he started executing the spirit of harambee - that we pulled together to push out the colonial yoke from our country. So, that is when it started, in early 1960s."
},
{
"id": 1496918,
"url": "http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1496918/?format=api",
"text_counter": 140,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Sen. Abdul Haji",
"speaker_title": "The Temporary Speaker",
"speaker": null,
"content": " Sen. Gloria."
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"id": 1496919,
"url": "http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1496919/?format=api",
"text_counter": 141,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Sen. Orwoba",
"speaker_title": "",
"speaker": null,
"content": "Thank you, my youth representative. I like that he has said it was started by an individual gentleman and then it was mainstreamed by a politician for political purposes, and that is my point exactly. That we can say that it is a spirit of giving, but the bottom line is that, when the ‘ Nyayo’ was put in there, it was a spirit of, ‘let us come together and let us follow this individual, who is now running on something called Nyayo.’ The reason I was asking for the timelines is because I would like to ask my colleagues as we debate this Bill whether during that time did we had devolved functions. Did we have structures where we can support our social systems? Did we even have things that we are now calling finance bills? Were our taxes as heavy as they are today? This is because, the spirit of harambee can be justified and cleaned up to make it look like such a beautiful thing that we must all support, but in real essence, the spirit of harambee in 2024, is a spirit of dependency. It is a spirit of saying we are agreeing that our broken systems in healthcare, social services, education system, as well as in housing, is what we are promoting. Then we can now all come together and say ‘harambee’ again and go back to our pockets, so that we can give money to people. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, it was fancy during the time when I am sure our youth representative was a teenager. It was probably encouraged because at that time we were living in communities of social welfare and people were taking care of each other, and it was something to look up to. However, today in 2024, when each individual is being encouraged to take up an income-generating activity so that they can pay taxes, why then would we promote a spirit of dependency? With that opening speech, I support this Bill because it forces us, leaders, to stop encouraging the spirit of dependency. When I talk about the spirit of dependency, it is not just leaders who go to harambees to give money for funerals, for health reasons and all other things. In my social circles, every opportunity, we talk about weddings or talking about how we are going to visit so-and-so the next weekend in whoever's house, the first thing they do is open a pay bill or a till number, or they give the number collecting money. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, why? We are encouraging a spirit of dependency in this country. That is the reason I feel that some of the structures we The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Director, Hansard and AudioServices, Senate."
},
{
"id": 1496920,
"url": "http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1496920/?format=api",
"text_counter": 142,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Sen. Orwoba",
"speaker_title": "",
"speaker": null,
"content": "have in place should be pushed and make sure that we have efficiency in those structures. We have become side-tracked with the fact that if someone in your family dies, it is okay to set up a WhatsApp group to collect money. We have insurance companies and we have our social security fund, which we should question and bring Bills to this House and ask why this social security fund does not cater for funerals; or if it caters for funerals, why not make it efficient that no one should say they are collecting money for a funeral? Then the first question that Kenyans should ask is why are you collecting money for funerals and yet funerals are catered for under this social security fund? Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, I will say again that every single time you hear of this word ‘harambee’ and I challenge any Member of this House because I know I am one of the youngest, even though we have younger ones, but we all remember that harambee was ‘Nyayo’ - follow an individual. If you look at that time of that individual, we were 100 per cent dependent on a centralized system that was governed by one man, and that was our former President. This being a House that supports devolution, we should be ashamed of ourselves to come to the Floor of the House and say that, in the spirit of harambee, churches should be built, and it should not be set aside. We should be ashamed. We should support this Bill because as the ‘Upper’ House that protects devolution and ensures that we give monies to those devolved functions on the county level, we are pushing for accountability. This is to the extent that the healthcare works, the housing schemes work and the education sector works, so that we do not have any reason to come here and defend any form of law legislation that calls for us to go back to the 1960s that Sen. (Dr.) Oburu was telling me about. We have no business looking back or to go back and emulate what our forefathers were doing when there was no devolution or technology, and yet, we are advanced. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, I support this Bill. I can tell you that some of us as much as we are in politics, we probably do not fit in this political space. I have analyzed all the politicians in this House and if there is one thing politicians are afraid of, is that every Thursday like today - and you can see that people are moving in and out of the House. They are looking for money because tomorrow they will be at funerals and they have to go and contribute. Then on Saturday, they have to be on the ground because they have to go and give money to social groups. They are in and out of this House and they are distracted. They cannot even contribute to this Bill because when it strikes Thursday, politicians become stressed. They have to go back to the grassroots and for harambees. They know they have all these community groups waiting for them in the grassroots and they ask, Senator, umeleta ngapi ? In that essence, what are we doing when we say that our 2010 Constitution which pushed for devolution of services and we do not support this Bill because we want us to continue contributing? If not for nothing and as a legislator who has sat in this House for two years, we must continue to push for services to be delivered 100 per cent efficiently by the government, so that we can stop the spirit of dependency, which we hide behind by saying that harambee is our forefathers. The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Director, Hansard and AudioServices, Senate."
},
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"id": 1496921,
"url": "http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1496921/?format=api",
"text_counter": 143,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Sen. Orwoba",
"speaker_title": "",
"speaker": null,
"content": "No, it is a spirit of dependency that we need to put aside and we need to question ourselves as Africans. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, I know there are those who say that---"
}
]
}