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{
    "id": 131041,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/131041/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 347,
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    "content": "Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, as has been pointed out, this is an organization that brings together Parliamentarians from more than seven countries in the Great Lakes Region. Their contribution to peace building is recognized throughout the African continent. In fact, as the team leader of the Kenyan delegation to the Pan-African Parliament, I can tell you that at that Parliament, AMANI Forum is recognized as one of the consultative organs. I also know that the East African Legislative Assembly (EALA) also does recognize AMANI Forum as a consultative body in matters of peace building, conflict resolution and arbitration. I have an enviable track record in their performance. I recall leading a delegation to the Southern Sudan bringing together more than 23 Members of Parliament from all these parts of the world and we are playing a key role in bringing the two sides together. In fact, the contribution of AMANI Forum is sometimes not recognized. However, the role we played as AMANI Forum during the period of bringing peace in Sudan could not have been more accelerated if it was not for the efforts of the AMANI Forum Members of Parliament from the region. Therefore, as Parliament, although we are the last to officially recognize this, I think it is only fair that we do what other Parliaments have done. We should give official recognition to AMANI Forum as a recognized Parliamentary body and with facilities including secretariat facilities, offices and attachment of one of the clerks to the organization so that they coordinate the efforts of the Forum. Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, because we are the regional headquarters of AMANI Forum, all activities and whenever there are movements of peace committees from the seven countries in the region, they always pass through Nairobi because this is the hub. When they are at the airport, I have on many occasions been telephoned late at night by Members of the AMANI Forum from Congo asking me to go to the airport. Immediately I hear AMANI Forum I always rush there. This really shows the need for a secretariat which can coordinate the activities of the region so that when Members of Parliament pass through Nairobi, they know for sure that they can telephone or send a text message to the secretariat in Nairobi and there will be somebody from the Kenyan Parliament at the airport to receive and clear them to facilitate the work they are doing. The work of peace building and conflict resolution in our part of the world is the most fundamental of political activity because there is no part of the region that is not afflicted. We as AMANI Forum must take this responsibility and contribute at the forefront to these efforts that have been made. I know that when there was conflict regarding the Tanzanian elections in Zanzibar and Pemba, it took the efforts of AMANI Forum to travel with Members of this Parliament and others and they played a key role in bringing peace to that region and facilitating the return of a number of refugees who had fled Pemba and Zanzibar and settled in Kenya following the disputed elections at that time. This shows that if we have regional bodies, we do not have to turn to the"
}