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{
    "id": 1337146,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1337146/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 73,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Kikuyu, UDA",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Kimani Ichung’wah",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "beginning with what the Member for Kamukunji has said that, not just in Lamu but in the entire country, we must live together as one nation. All communities are all over the country. You go to Bungoma and the Bajuni are living peacefully with other people. You will find the Somali community in Lamu just like in Kikuyu Constituency. As Hon. Owen Baya will tell you, the Pokomo and Giriama are known to be inhabitants of the Coastal Region but today they also live in Northern Kenya. As leaders, we must always remember that we bear great responsibility and duty of care to the people we lead. That duty and responsibility must always encourage us to speak in a manner that always brings our people together. Criminals and terrorists are unaware of the differences we have as a country along our ethnicities. They endeavour to take advantage of any small difference we perpetuate as leaders by inciting Kenyans against each other. It is always fashionable, if I stand here to speak to my community and the gallery. Especially, if you come from a large community like mine, there is always the temptation to speak to the gallery and say what will excite the people, especially the voters. We must always bear in mind that we owe a duty of care even to the big communities we lead. However small or big a community is in this country, we were all put here by the Almighty God to live peaceably together. We must desist from using words or issuing statements that may look populist in nature but end up inciting communities against each other. Yesterday, the Cabinet Secretary for Interior and National Administration released a list of terrorists and criminals terrorising people in Lamu. Security challenges relating to terrorism are not only in Lamu County, but also neighbouring counties like Garissa, Wajir and Mandera have suffered the same fate. We cannot say that there is a particular community being targeted in Lamu but not in Mandera or Garissa for that matter. Terrorists are criminals who must be looked at with the prism of criminal activity and not their ethnicity, where they come from or religion. I have seen in Lamu and Northern Kenya, many Muslims also suffer in the hands of terrorists. Therefore, I wish to plead for restraint, especially amongst the political leadership. I am saying this because I have relatives in Lamu. My first cousins live in Mpeketoni. When I speak to them, they tell me about criminals and terrorists and not ethnicities or one ethnic community targeting another. As leaders, we must be cautious so that we do not fall prey to the machinations of criminals called terrorists, who want to exploit our ethnic divisions to make it look like one ethnic community is being targeted in this region and another ethnic community in another region. We are speaking about one community in Lamu. If tomorrow you speak to the Member for Likoni, Hon. Mishi Mboko, she will tell you, for instance, that Likoni has a huge population from Luo-Nyanza. What will happen tomorrow if terrorists target that community from Luo- Nyanza in Likoni? Are we going to say those originally from Luo-Nyanza are being targeted by the Digo, who also live there? That is why we must look at terrorism as a criminal activity and help the Government to deal with it that way because it has nothing to do with our ethnicity, where we come from or the religion we profess. Criminals and terrorists are plainly that. I know we will be tempted because the other day I saw the Member for Mombasa County express solidarity at the global front with whatever is happening in the Middle East. All these temptations are there but I plead with you at the global stage, to call for restraint and peaceful co-existence of people from all races and religions so that we live peacefully together. I would like to plead with the people of Lamu County that the Cabinet Secretary for Interior and National Administration has already released a list of the criminals. He has even offered a cash reward for anyone who will give the security organs information that will lead to their arrest. That shows the level of commitment by the ministry to deal with the problem in Lamu and the Northern Kenya Region. Those who may be harbouring criminals or have knowledge of where these criminals are hiding, whether it is in the Boni Forest or the frontier districts of 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."
}