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{
    "id": 1373461,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1373461/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 283,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Navakholo, ODM",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Emmanuel Wangwe",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": " Thank you very much, Hon. Temporary Speaker. Due to that interruption, my microphone has shifted to another cell. At the outset, I congratulate the Member for Malava, Hon. Moses Malulu Injendi for thinking on behalf of this very vulnerable group. As we celebrate these people and support the Motion, we also wish to celebrate our ladies who have dressed in black in this House for the sake of the many Kenyan girls who have been killed in the recent past. I also join my colleagues to condemn the kind of activities some girls have been subjected to. Allow me to appreciate the role played by this vulnerable group that is commonly known as the village elders and who have been graduated to the title village managers without money. A title without money is empty. You could be called a very big title, but what matters is what goes into the pocket. I support this Motion. These people play the very cardinal role of providing information and even guarding the sovereignty of this country. Without information, even the arsenal and the artillery that we have may not be of any use. We must have information to know where to attack and know who maybe planning to attack us. I want to cite an example from Navakholo. The area assistant chiefs fully rely on village managers for information. In fact, whenever we sit with them, they can easily bring us a senior village elder who can tell us the character of every person in a homestead. Actually, when it comes to gathering of information, these are the people who know the true Kenyans. Therefore, it is important that we benefit from them and at the same time enrich their pocket. I congratulate Hon. Malulu as he has not grown tired. Instead, he has fought on from the 11th Parliament when he brought the first Motion which he brought again in the 12th Parliament. Successfully, we are now debating it fully in the 13th Parliament. That only makes us acknowledge that the best time is God's time and not our own. At the same time, I wish to inform the Kenya Kwanza Government that it is their time to implement this very noble cause and they can benefit by salvaging the otherwise very vulnerable section of the civil service who are really civil servants without benefits. I support this Motion. I wish to clarify that let us not just give the village elders a stipend. Let them be sure that this money will be coming and will be there for them. These are the people employed within the cadre of village managers as the county governments do. Why should we be the national Government when the county governments do it better? They have already employed village managers in their various sections. Therefore, it is good that we support this cause and allow our Government to move in and see what happens. Finally, as we undertake to provide village managers resources from the Exchequer, it is important we also know how we are going to identify them. Not every village elder is suitable for the job. Let us classify them and conduct, at least, some small tests to ensure that the people who get the positions have good standing in the community. Let us look for a way of selecting these village elders so that we can have a very vibrant section of leaders who are concerned with Kenyans. I beg to support. Thank you."
}