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{
    "id": 1218778,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1218778/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 303,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Loima, UDA",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Protus Akujah",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": " Thank you, Hon. Temporary Speaker. I rise to support the adjournment Motion. Insecurity in the North Rift region has been pathetic. I wonder whether we are in Kenya. As someone said, the situation has been there for many years and it looks like nothing is being done. Insecurity in the North Rift has caused a lot of problems in the affected areas. We have lost a lot of people due to banditry activities. We have also lost property. So much property have been lost. Displacement of people has taken place. People have been moved from their ancestral land to areas they are not familiar with. It is a way of displacing people so that they cannot continue with their normal livelihoods. Livelihoods have been destroyed because the livestock that these people depend on are being taken away and they are not being recovered. To add to that, destitution has been witnessed in these areas. People lose their parents and siblings and they become orphans with nobody to help them. I want to be told why we are suffering like this yet the Government is supposed to protect people’s lives and property? Some of the livestock we lose in banditry activities cannot be traced. Mark you, we are in Kenya. In fact, the banditry we experience at our international borders with South Sudan, Ethiopia and Uganda is not like this. We recover livestock taken by the Karamoja but not livestock taken by people from areas being mentioned here. What does that tell you? It means that cattle rustling is a big business involving high-level Government officials, the police and some business cartels. That is why you are not able to trace any single livestock that is stolen. If your livestock are stolen, you will never get them even if you do a rounding up of livestock within the area. It means the livestock are ready for transportation. The moment they are stolen, they are driven to a specific place where trucks are waiting for loading. You will never get them. That is why Governor Natembeya was saying Nairobi people are the ones benefitting from the proceeds of cattle rustling or banditry. The livestock are taken to Nairobi and other outlets. Police stations in Turkana, West Pokot and Samburu counties are empty. They are called police stations but there are only five police officers. A police station should have between 30 and 50 officers. Those police stations hardly have 10 police officers. It means that the police officers cannot secure the lives and properties of people in those areas. Secondly, most of the police officers sent to those areas are incapacitated. Some of them have been sent there because of disciplinary cases. Some of them have been sent there because they are alcoholics or drug addicts. These are people who cannot act even if your livestock are stolen. They will never get out of camps. The operation that was started the other day has even escalated banditry activities. Three days ago, a coordinated attack happened in three counties at the same time. That means the bandits have a command centre. I do not know what the operation officers are doing there. They are doing nothing. We need to know exactly what the officers are doing. You gazette five counties as curfew areas but the number of officers deployed is small and thinly spread. 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."
}