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    "id": 1120075,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1120075/?format=api",
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    "content": "Kenyans especially in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia have been subjected to is not something that started yesterday. These are issues that have been with us for very long. I am glad that the Committee has prioritized this. They have done a good job with it and have gone beyond political pronunciations to specific recommendations and measures that we, as a House, can take. We should make sure that we mitigate, protect and implement some of the recommendations that have been made by the Committee in the report. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, I would like to congratulate the Committees of this House. This House is a protector of this country and its citizens. While not all committees are at the same level, this House has become the last resort where Kenyans come for help. I am very familiar with the issues around protection of migrant workers. The International Organization of Migration (IOM) has documented serious degrading and dehumanizing conditions that Kenyans and other nationals in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia have gone through. The Human Rights Watch has very robust reports in terms of the protection measures that should be taken. Our country has signed and ratified certain international labour laws. I am not sure which ones, but we need to find out the ones that we have ratified. Having said that, I ask Sen. Sakaja to go beyond this House and bring all these Ministries together. It can be in a Committee of the Whole with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Labour and Social Protection, and the Ministry of Public Service, Youth, and Gender Affairs. Apparently, young women are disproportionately affected by this inhumane treatment as migrant workers. They have special needs. They can be brought here so that nobody says that it is a certain person or points fingers at others. We can have this House interrogate what it is that they are going to do. We can then assign accountability on the basis of the recommendations that have been put in that report so that we know that we have done our job, assign appropriate accountabilities and left them to the job on their part. I hope that Sen. Sakaja can do this because he has really done well to go beyond the kinds of debates that we have. This is more than just talk shop. He has done very well in terms of tabling this Motion and having very specific measures in the report. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, I support the six-month suspension because we really need to get this right. The Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) is still with us. I am aware that the detention centres in Riyadh, Jizan and the rest are in deplorable conditions. We know that the highest number of people who occupy those detention centres are Chadians, Nigerians Kenyans, Ethiopians and Somalis, in that order. For us to be ranked with some of these nations that are in upheaval is unacceptable because we pride ourselves as a democratic and fairly advanced country. We are not even a lower income country; we are now a middle income country. Other than being negligent of our duty to protect that which is in the Constitution, what is the excuse for us to be among nations that have had challenges?"
}