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{
    "id": 1382103,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1382103/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 273,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Lemaletian",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "we should no longer decorate this as normal banditry, but a well-organised crime syndicate that could have foreign support from criminals within our thickets in the northern parts of Kenya. In the Oxford Dictionary, the definition of “disaster” is a sudden accident or natural catastrophe that causes great loss and life. We have lost uncountable people in Samburu and many counties in the northern parts of Kenya. This banditry is no longer the normal cultural game that they used to call it. It has evolved and metamorphosed over the years into a deadly criminal gang. At one point, when Mr. George Natembeya was the Rift Valley Regional Commissioner, there was a report that was put before our nation that some of these criminal entities had weapons that were much powerful than the weapons owned by the Government. It should worry each one of us that every time there is disarmament happening in any of the counties in the north, within a week, there is usually a deadly attack. That means there is constant and safe supply of weapons. The Government conducts thorough disarmament exercises. I know that because I lived and grew up there. I also know how these things are done, especially by the Rapid Deployment Units. Madam Temporary Speaker, when we talk about organised criminal gangs within our nation that have weapons more powerful than the Government, that is enough to qualify them as a terrorist group. This is a small terrorist group that is evolving. We know that terror groups such as the recent Houthis in the Red Sea, were at some point, just a small group rebelling within its country. These are rebels because they are defying the law and operating on no law. They also have complete and sheer disregard for human lives and the laws of the land. When you analyse the operations of these bandits; the weaponry, the evolution into land grabbing, the conquering of territories and internal displacements of people, it is enough to say that, business is booming somewhere. The Executive needs to put more effort in utilizing its security forces, especially the intelligence to ensure that they have all information concerning who is profiting from these criminal organisations. We have lost so many bread-winners. We have led our people into abject poverty. We have caused internal displacements. As I speak, Samburus are not shanty people, we do not live in shanty places, we live in vast lands. We might be financially poor, but, we normally have land. So many of our people in Maralal, Samburu County, are still living in shanties and mud nylon houses just because they have been internally displaced by our neighbours. Madam Temporary Speaker, it should also not be qualified as a tribal war. It needs to be publicly declared that this is a terror group, regardless of the pastoralists nomadic community these people come from. I also join my colleagues in saying that these families deserve compensation. I do not imagine that, today, I have everything; livestock and land. Tomorrow, I am a beggar in the streets of Maralal or Isiolo just because somebody who had more capacity than the one who was supposed to protect me, sent me into a shanty ghetto. The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposes only. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Director, Hansard Services, Senate."
}