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{
    "id": 1050209,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1050209/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 101,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Were",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13183,
        "legal_name": "Petronila Were Lokorio",
        "slug": "petronila-were-lokorio"
    },
    "content": "Thank you, Mr. Speaker, Sir. I rise to support the Statement by Sen. (Dr.) Musuruve on the annual International Mother Language Day that is normally celebrated on 21st February every year. I support the recognition of what we usually call mother tongue, because it is important for the cognitive development of the child. That is why we have more smarter older people than the young people we have now and we call them millennials. This is simply because they missed out on their mother tongue. When we were growing up in lower primary school, mother tongue was compulsory. I remember that there was a story book called “Mukolwe ni Ingara Yiye,” and those books have disappeared now. We do not hear about them. The writers of those books are not there, so languages are disappearing. For example, in my language of Marachi from Busia County most young people now have replaced letter ‘b’ with letters ‘vu’ and we have no idea how the ‘b’ became overtaken by ‘vu’. If there was an appreciation of mother tongue the way it used to be for lower primary school, we would not be looking at languages facing extinction such as the Abasuba that Sen. (Dr.) Musuruve talked about. There is more emphasis now on having our children speak more English, but it does not help them develop their intelligence. English is taught in Kenya as a second language. It is not a first language. Therefore, what we are now learning in English is not original, but has been adulterated over the years. We can never be able to speak the first The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor, Senate."
}