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{
    "id": 1291696,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1291696/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 339,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Oketch Gicheru",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": ". I appreciate the fact that it is an issue of growing concern. I also appreciate that there are some responses that we have seen in that area and, my brother, Sen. Munyi Mundigi, has captured it very well. I hope that this continues. In the areas of Kainuk, we have seen the deployment of a serious force of the Government. As we were being escorted to a number of places, I saw the National Police Reserves (NPR) even in the irrigation schemes. Therefore, I invite our attention to a raw and grievous issue that is going on in the counties of Kisumu and Kericho. The issue of Sondu is one that perturbs my mind. I have been trying to keep in touch with information that is coming from the ground. As I speak, six people are dead, 10 wounded and hospitalized in Nyabondo and Kisumu hospitals. Eleven houses of individuals claimed to be of Luo descent have been torched. It happened this morning. In Sondu Town, there are three major business premises that have been burned down today. As I speak right now, 200 people of Luo descent have been displaced in Sondu. Others are housed at Saka Primary School. You can find this information at the ACK Church in Ngege. This concerns me because this issue has been here for the longest time. For people who are not familiar with it, it oscillates between two issues of conflict areas. One is the issue of periodic attacks by the Kipsigis and the Luo communities on the issue of cattle. However, the more overarching issue has been the contested border points between the two communities. During the regime of the late President Moi, this issue escalated very fast to a serious tribal clash that first started with the attack on the Luo community and then escalated to retaliations leading to killings of the other community. During the regime of President Kibaki and Uhuru Kenyatta, we saw a bit of calm between the two communities. However, these new attacks on the Luo community at the border has emanated in the wage of Maandamano. I remember on 7th July, 2023, there was an attack perpetuated on the Luo community by the people that come from the other side of the contested border in Kericho County. The eight people who died were all from the Luo community. I am a national leader. I do not want to tribalize this just because I happen to come from that area. It is wrong to tribalize these kinds of conflicts because that ethnic wrangle can bring down a nation. However, the kind of silence that we have seen by the Presidency on the issue of Sondu is wanting. This is because the President has appointed a Cabinet Secretary who is supposed to deal with issues of this magnitude. When the Cabinet Secretary in charge of Interior and National Administration went to Sondu, he did not take time to sit down with leaders of that area and deal with the overarching issues of these tribal killings. Instead, he ended up sitting with the police administration."
}