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{
    "id": 1442636,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1442636/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 44,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Veronica Maina",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "Was this an expression of just the Gen Z? Maybe it was an expression of many more Kenyans who may not have had an opportunity to express themselves. These young people came out as true patriots, tribeless and without any boundaries. They defeated the class division and came out to speak resoundingly. My only unfortunate moment was when the demonstration was infiltrated and turned violent leading to a standoff between the demonstrators and the law enforcement agencies, the security officers. The conflict ended up landing some of them in mortuaries. As Kenyans, we need to have a retrospection of all the officers, including the State officers who are seated in public offices. If there was something that was happening that was off and had a tendency to have a corrupt tag, this means the storm now must stop on corrupt practices. Let everybody starting with us look at how they are conducting their affairs. Today we are talking about more of ourselves. How are we conducting our affairs? For those who are Christians like myself, the good Book will guide us into what is a godly order. For those who are Muslims, the Quran will guide them. However, for the nation, we have the Constitution that guides how governance must be done and how structures should be laid out. Where we have gone wrong, does that Constitution offer us an avenue of ventilation? Mine is to call upon Gen Z to abandon demonstration because we have begun to listen to what they are saying. I call upon them to allow us to walk the order of the Constitution by accepting an olive branch extended by our President. That is the highest level of executive commitment that the President is willing to have a forum with them and discuss issues that need to be thrashed out. This must be taken as a sign of very good will. There are those issues that have been laid out. Is it possible for a nation to change within a day? I see it has signaled an opportunity for us to begin the change. While all the demands may not be met overnight, some of the glaring issues like dealing with the corruption cases that are obvious and have evidence, the ball should begin rolling. Why? Because if we cannot face the change, then change will change us. It is my view that if we can honestly face ourselves. Society should also face itself. The EACC should also come out of slumber, take up those files and where there is sufficient evidence, prosecute those that need to be prosecuted. Then the Gen Zs will begin to see that we are serious and committed to upholding the dignity of every Kenyan. Regarding the jobs, it is true that the youths have faced a lot of unemployment. I can only imagine how distressing it is when a young person has gone through schooling and has nothing to do and yet we are supposed to give solutions as leaders. Those issues now need to be tackled differently. Is there bias in the way public office employs young people? We need to straighten out the processes. We need to do things differently. I want to specifically look at the suggestion that has been made by SRC for raising the salary of the Senators and Members of the National Assembly. That proposal is good because everybody needs a pay rise at any point when they are working. A worker needs to be motivated. However, the timing is very wrong and it is not needed. We are just repeating it to affirm the fact that none of these Legislators sitting here today had asked for that increment. We would call upon the SRC to be a little bit more serious with their tasks. 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 and Audio Services,Senate."
}