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"id": 1442774,
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"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Sen. Onyonka",
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"speaker": {
"id": 13592,
"legal_name": "Onyonka Richard Momoima",
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"content": "Thank you, Madam Temporary Speaker. I stand here a very sad person and yet, I am deeply happy because it has been something I have been dealing with on a personal level. This is in terms of my responsibility as a legislator. Before I proceed with saying any other thing, I would like to mention a few names. Just like my colleagues have said, I knew my brother, Sen. Aaron Cheruiyot, was worthy, but I now know that he is much more worthy than I thought he was. He has surprised me. I remember I once made a phone call to him asking how to manage the issue of Madam Nyakang’o. He told me to tell her that they were trying to figure out on what to do. I took the message and that is when I knew that he was a serious person. I am proud of him and he should keep it up. Madam Temporary Speaker, I would like to mention the name of Madam Nyakang’o, who is also the Controller of Budget (CoB) and Madam Nancy, the Auditor General. Those are the two incredible women of this Republic. If I had my own reward, I would give them. This is because when everything else seems to be failing, some of us have been talking to them and all the time, we have feared for their lives. It is not because anything would happen, but the costs were too high and the expectation was much higher. They have done their jobs. I am happy that this House, which is known as the oversighting House, has seen the light. My colleagues in this House – sorry, I have lost my voice. I am lucky because I have the institutional memory. I have been in politics for the last 30 years. In those years, I have been in elective politics for 22 years. The problems in Kenya, as Sen. (Dr.) Oburu said, have not been started by President William Ruto. The other day, people were asking me how I could tell that the young Gen Z would come to the streets after one year. I told them that I look at the trend. If you look at the Independence era, 1962 and 1963, that was the 20 years beyond where the liberation movement took place. After that, we got Independence. It took us another 20 years for us to have a military coup. The people who were guarding and within that military coup were not old men like hon. Jaramogi Oginga Odinga or Hon. Charles Njonjo. It was young people; children of the University of Nairobi and the young people who believed in the ideal of what Kenya should have been. Madam Temporary Speaker, the second issue was in 2002, another 20 years later when President Kibaki was elected and when we had a referendum. We also got a new Constitution and then we said that Kenya was now in the right path. After that, we did not follow the letter of the Constitution. What many of us have never understood is that your democracy is as valid, reasonable and verifiable and is implementable as the people who are willing to follow and implement the Constitution. We have completely failed our people. That is why when the elections took over and we had challenges, when you look at our country and the crisis that has come up, and the issues which are bedevilling our country, you realize that we are on quicksand. Unless you have old men and women, people of dignity and decency, who have wisdom and are not greedy to fix this country, we will not have a country very soon. 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."
}