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{
    "id": 1061578,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1061578/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 90,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. (Dr.) Ochillo-Ayacko",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "Thank you, Mr. Speaker, Sir. I stand in solidarity with the petitioner. When such a matter has to come to Parliament, it means there is callousness, unkindness and selfishness on the part of those who are doing it and the institutions responsible. I once had the privilege of being Minister for Energy and people had squatted under power lines. We had got money as a nation to upgrade those power lines and I attempted to have those people evicted. The donors, including the World Bank who had offered that money stopped and told me that we were not behaving like Government. Government must always answer the issue as to where the evictees will go. You cannot just evict people who are Kenyans, expect them to disappear and expect them to hibernate. They are Kenyans and when they are squatters, they are your squatters and as a Government, you must provide resources and monies to shelter them and make sure they do not suffer. Otherwise, you become a gangster Government. It is important as representatives of counties and their people to get the national and county governments to tell us where these people will go. They cannot leave Kenya and become refugees in another place. They cannot invade other parcels that are rightly owned by those who own those parcels. It is upon the Government to do developments and to take sufficient steps to resettle the people who are affected by these developments. Until we address the question of where these people are being taken and the quality of life they will lead under Article 43 of the Constitutions as read together with Article 40, I think we are a bandit government, a bandit nation, and we are very unkind to people we should be responsible for. I support this Petition and ask the Committee to treat this matter as very urgent. We have COVID-19 now. If you take that and add anxiety and lack of shelter, you are actually ruining the lives of people and their dependents. Thank you, Mr. Speaker, Sir."
}