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"id": 1143479,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1143479/?format=api",
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"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Kipipiri, JP",
"speaker_title": "Hon. Amos Kimunya",
"speaker": {
"id": 174,
"legal_name": "Amos Muhinga Kimunya",
"slug": "amos-kimunya"
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"content": "We had started debate on this Motion in the last Session. Obviously, that died with the Fifth Session. So, this is a reintroduction of that intention in the realisation that our Parliament has come a long way. For those who have read some history, the first legislative council, the LegCo, sat in a small corrugated iron building on Haile Selassie Avenue which was then known as White House Road, just across from these Chambers. It remained there for 17 years. We also know the Bank of India Building on Kenyatta Avenue has its history. The LegCo started meeting there in 1924. It was then known as the Memorial Hall. From that building between 1924 to 1954, the Legco transacted business for 30 years before it moved to the buildings that we know today as the Parliament. This information is recorded by the first Speaker of the National Assembly, the late Humphrey Slade who served this Parliament from 1967 to 1970, at pages 59 to 60 in his book TheParliament of Kenya . This book was published in 1967 by the East African Publishing House. At that time, the book used to cost Kshs3. It is a very rare book, for those who might be lucky to get it. I am recounting these details just to demonstrate a few things: One, we have a very rich history, but one that we hardly know of. It is largely unrecorded. Where it is recorded, it is scattered. Two, it is important that we have a repository of our unique history and heritage to which we can always go back to, read, touch, feel and be part of. Especially with the young generation that is now moving towards their phones, play stations and all that. In the near future we probably will never have anyone who can tell you what happens in Parliament and what happened in Parliament where there are these traditions we keep talking of—that Parliament is about its history, traditions and pronouncements. We could lose all that if we do not get into this documentation. The third reason I am recounting these details is that, as Chinua Achebe, the world acclaimed Nigerian novelist and essayist, once said: “there is that great proverb—until the lions have their own historians, the history of the hunt will always glorify the hunter”. Therefore, we need to tell our history. We have seen the distortion that has happened to our history of Kenya, depending on who tells that story. If you are reading from the colonial books you will find that, much as the mountains have been there and Mt. Kenya has always been there with its different names, we are told in the books that the first man to see Mt. Kenya was a certain colonialist. The first person to discover Nyahururu Falls was somebody Thompson. But, it has always been there. It is said so because the locals had never documented it or claimed it. Getting to our Lake Victoria being named after queens, we risk. Even for the Parliament of Kenya, some people may not even know some of these things. It could be written in history from a different perspective. It gives me great pleasure to move this Motion. Also to note is that other parliaments have been doing the same in their documentation. If you look at our United Kingdom counterpart, the Parliament in the United Kingdom has what they call the Preservation and Access Team which ensures that all precious collections are cared for, conserved and prepared for digitisation or loan. They have the Information and Records Management Service which goes by the abbreviation IRMS. It supports the management and protection of parliamentary information. Indeed, because of this documentation, the Westminster and its traditions become part of the United Kingdom’s tourism. It attracts quite a number of visitors who go there because they have read and know about those traditions. Even the Speaker’s procession is one of the things that people queue to wait for so that they can record and view, because of the significance it has been accorded. All this is because, once it is documented, people in other jurisdictions can know about it and get it. The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor."
}