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{
    "id": 1218824,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1218824/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 349,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Marsabit County, UDA",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Naomi Waqo",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": " Thank you, Hon. Temporary Speaker, for allowing me to add my voice to this very important Motion on insecurity in Turkana. It also affects many other areas where some of us come from. I also want to take this opportunity to congratulate the Woman Representative for Turkana County for coming up with this very important Motion that touches on the lives of our people and many other Kenyans who suffer from this problem. Cattle rustling and banditry has affected Turkana and many other areas in northern and north-eastern Kenya. For the last many years, that has been the practice. Before, people used to think that it is the normal cattle rustling and nothing much. But right now, it has become a business whereby bandits are hired in order to attack, get cattle and then a certain businessman somewhere gets them for sale. So, it has become a huge business and it continues from time to time. As a result of this, many have been widowed. I come from Marsabit County and I know that many of our young women have been widowed and we have created a lot of orphans as a result of this. In fact, sometimes I sit and tell myself that maybe we need to come up with a school that will take care of orphans so that those children from different ethnic groups grow together because right now they are placed in different places and they do not know one another. If the Government builds schools that take care of children orphaned by banditry and tribal clashes, then our children will grow together and, maybe, overcome the problem that we have with our ethnic groups. Poverty levels, again, in all these areas have increased. I know my own experience in Marsabit is the same one in Turkana and other areas. This is because when they get the animals from one person or one family, they enrich themselves, but others are rendered poor. I know very well that the poverty level of my own county has gone high as a result of this practice. There is need for us to see how we can empower our people and also see how best they can earn their living other than just practising pastoralism. That has proved to be a very difficult lifestyle because all the pastoralists today have no food to put on their table. They look to feed their animals and they struggle, but without notice, an enemy comes and drives away their animals. It is the responsibility of our Government to see how to grow our people economically so that they can have a different source of income other than that of keeping livestock. They can invest in different types of businesses to earn a living. We need to ensure all the young people go to school. Most of the time, young boys take care of livestock. The Government can push the people to take their children to school so that we can have a helpful society. Drought is already taking away livestock. It is high time we overcame the problems we are going through. Tribalism and ethnic clashes are the other issues that have contributed to this matter."
}