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{
    "id": 1152853,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1152853/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 64,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Kieni, JP",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Kanini Kega",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 1813,
        "legal_name": "James Mathenge Kanini Kega",
        "slug": "james-mathenge-kanini-kega"
    },
    "content": " Thank you very much, Hon. Speaker. On behalf of my family, on behalf of the people of Kieni that I represent and on behalf of the Nyeri people, I convey my very sincere condolences to the family, friends and relatives of the third President of the Republic of Kenya. As the country mourns the third President, we should always remember that he was a father, an uncle, a grandfather and a great grandfather to many. So I take this opportunity to convey a message of condolences to his family and friends. I had an opportunity to interact with the third President at a tender age when I was at the university. In the year 1998 when our Member of Parliament, the late Munene Kairu passed on, I decided to vie as a Member of Parliament. I remember the third President invited us, because he was the chairman of the Democratic Party (DP), for a meeting with all the aspirants who were contesting for the Kieni parliamentary seat. I remember him telling me, “Young man, you are contesting for this seat. But we beseech you Mathenge because you still have a lot of time and a bright future ahead of you that a time will come when you will be elected as Member of Parliament.” So, consensus did not just start the other day. There was consensus and we agreed to support Dr. Chris Murungaru. For sure we supported Chris Murungaru who became the MP for Kieni. Fifteen years later, I was elected Member of Parliament for Kieni because I had listed to him. The leader that we are bidding farewell today has many hats, many attributes and many virtues. To highlight just a few, one of them is humility. We all remember when the third President served as a Vice President and also as a minister in the KANU Government, there were many times he was humiliated. There was a time he was actually demoted from the Vice President and taken to the Ministry of Health. He did not abscond duty. He continued serving the country because he knew that in any opportunity that one is given… He used to say that when you are given an opportunity to serve, it is an opportunity to serve not to enrich yourself. The third President detested lazy people and corruption. If we remember, during his tenure as the third President when there were allegations of corruption even with his closest friends, they were actually dropped from the Cabinet. That is the kind of leader that we will forever remember. The free primary education will remain in our hearts. There are many students that I have come across who say that were it not for his intervention, they would not have gone through the primary education. Our farmers will never forget Hon. Mwai Kibaki because of the new Kenya Cooperative Creameries (KCC). KCC had been taken over by private individuals but when he took over power, he reverted the corporation back to the farmers and now the farmers are happy about the milk and the prices they get. We from the mountain can never forget what he did in terms of the road infrastructure. Remembering the Thika Super Highway, we all know the kind of traffic jams we used to have. We used to have clogging on the entire Thika Road. With the construction of the Thika Super Highway, definitely even the value of land in our areas improved. 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."
}