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{
    "id": 1087188,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1087188/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 207,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Omogeni",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13219,
        "legal_name": "Erick Okong'o Mogeni",
        "slug": "erick-okongo-mogeni"
    },
    "content": "we make contributions, often times, we want to acknowledge the good work that is being done by Sen. (Dr.) Zani. We compliment you Senator and we hope that you will continue doing this good work. Going back to the Bill that is before this House, for those of us who are practitioners, any time you place a limit on a legislation, you will find that some people can be very mischievous A good example are people who said that our leases should have a time limit of 99 years. Exactly about 10 years ago when these leases were expiring, there was chaos all over because some people took advantage of the ignorance of people who had inherited land and did not know the exact time when those leases were expiring. People lost property. So, a mischievous person can do something that this country can feel very embarrassed about if they stepped in at the expiry of 50 years and did something that would make us lose this national anthem that has been with us for many years. I was walking down memory lane. Incidentally, the person who assisted in composing this national anthem is somebody who had also gone to school properly, Prof. Washington Omondi. He was among the four Kenyans who helped in composing our national anthem. He was helped by other Kenyans; there was George, Peter and one White person called Graham. Sen. (Dr.) Zani, so you can see that what you are doing was started by scholars. You are just building on what other great scholars did. Anybody who has gone through school we are taught to sing our national anthem right from Class One. When you go to Class One in our schools, you sing the national anthem at least once every week. We used to sing it on Mondays. It is a unifying factor. When you say: “God bless our land and nation. Let us dwell in unity” it is something that should unify all of us and make us feel that we are proud, patriotic Kenyans. So, it is something that we need to protect. For the many years that Kenya has been Independent, we have never made any changes to our national anthem. I think if we did a competition in Africa, we would find that the people who composed ours, did a fantastic job. It is one of the best. I have watched people even when we are doing international competitions, when their national anthem is being played, I think Kenya has one of the best lyrics. When you listen to it, you can see that even the people in the stadium are enjoying. What Sen. (Dr.) Zani is proposing is a good thing. As Sen. Mutula Kilonzo Jnr. has said, we should echo what happens in other countries. If you travel to countries like Australia or even the USA, you will find that people have put flags outside their homes as a sense of pride that you belong to that country; that you are a citizen and a national of that country. That is what should happen. If you watch international matches, when maybe England is playing against Spain, you will see people come to the stadium carrying the flags of their countries. You will also see vehicles as they come to the stadium, they have the flags of their country. Our flag is something that should make all of us to be proud, to have a sense of pride that we are Kenyans. It should be accessible to all of us. That is why in the last Senate I really did not agree with the Bill that was passed by the previous Parliament which denied our governors the right to fly flags. If you read Article 6 of our Constitution, it says that we have two levels of government. We have the national Government and the county governments. So, if you The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposes only.A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor, Senate."
}