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{
    "id": 1220349,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1220349/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 304,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Kikuyu, UDA",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Kimani Ichung’wah",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "Therefore, if we are to talk about the political dimension, we must, as member States of ACP-EU, encourage each other and believe in democracy. When we were debating the Motion on Order No.9, I was hoping that my colleagues would be here to change our Standing Orders so as to allow Members to ask Questions to Cabinet Secretaries. We want to pursue the objective of the Cotonou Agreement. We want to have governments that are accountable to the people, allow democracy to thrive, and allow Members on the Minority side to ask Questions in order to hold the Government to account. Hon. Jared Okello, we have a Government that is not afraid to be held to account unlike the handshake regime that would not bear questions, leave alone being held to account. This is a Government that is telling you that you have the freedom to demonstrate only that you should do so peacefully. From your ranting out there, I hope you mean what you say that it will be peaceful picketing. Nobody has a problem in this country even if you come and picket outside Parliament as long as you do not block the gates. Do not stop me or Hon. Jared Okello from coming to do our work. If you want to picket outside the National Treasury, go and picket there quietly. Probably, the National Treasury will even be kind enough to offer you bottles of water or sodas during this very dry season. But you must do whatever you want to do peacefully and allow the people of Kenya to move on. The people of Kenya want to integrate and become part of that global economy just as this Report is telling us and knowing that we are signatories to the Cotonou Agreement. Therefore, if we have to pursue the objective of the Cotonou Agreement and be a respectable member of all these organisations like the AU, UN and the ACP-EU, we first have to be a country that respects itself. It is one thing to speak about democracy and another to practise it. Democracy must be practised and respected. Therefore, when we lose elections, we must concede just like those who lost in Kikuyu Constituency, or those who lost to Hon. Jared Okello in Nyando, conceded and are moving on with life. Even those who run for presidency in this country must learn to concede. For instance, Hon. Waihiga Mwaure and others who ran for presidency in 2022 conceded that they had lost the election fairly. Those who never conceded went to the Supreme Court, which made its determination. They were okay with it for six months until a time came when people were told to pay taxes. They thought they can intimidate the Government with demonstrations and cheap threats that we have seen this afternoon. I want to encourage them, even as I second the Motion, to remain faithful to all treaties and agreements that we sign as a country because we do not sign them as Government. It is not the Government that signed the Cotonou Agreement. It was signed by the previous Government, but we remain faithful to the objectives that were set out under the ACP-EU."
}