Entry Instance

HTTP 200 OK
Allow: GET, PUT, PATCH, DELETE, HEAD, OPTIONS
Content-Type: application/json
Vary: Accept

{
    "id": 1442929,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1442929/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 125,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Sifuna",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13599,
        "legal_name": "Sifuna Edwin Watenya",
        "slug": "sifuna-edwin-watenya"
    },
    "content": "us taking responsibility for everything that has happened that has led us to this particular moment. Allow me to follow in your footsteps and tender an unreserved apology to the people of Kenya if I have contributed in any way by my conduct, by my speech to bringing the country to where it is today. I apologize for that. Mr. Speaker, Sir, as the Senator of Nairobi, you know that Nairobi has borne the brunt of the protests, killings, the loss of lives and property. As I speak right now, we have 39 people, as of the last count, who have lost lives across the country. More than half of that, at least 19 have been killed in the City of Nairobi. Out of those 19 that have died in the City of Nairobi, between six and eight of them, the numbers are yet to be confirmed, were shot outside this very Parliament. As we join our country and our colleagues in mourning, I also want to take this opportunity to send my heartfelt condolences to all the families that have lost their loved ones in this protest. Since we have been the epicenter of these riots and protests, we have a lot of damage that has been done to public and private infrastructure. We have lost a lot of property. The value is unknown. Therefore, we will need time to do an audit of all the property that has been destroyed. Businesses in Nairobi, Central Business District (CBD) have been shut. There have been all sorts of claims. There are people who have come to me and talked about ethnic profiling that led to some of the attacks on the businesses. There are certain communities that are being attacked while others are not. We are in a place where we have never been in terms of the crisis that is facing us. All I hear the young people of this country say is that we, as a leadership, now need to stop talking and listen to them. I have been turning down invitations to media houses. I am asking media houses, why they are not inviting Gen Zs to tell them what it is they want and to paint a picture of the kind of country that they want. Would you believe that there are many Gen Zs who are being invited to these Television (TV) shows and are afraid that they will not leave those TV stations and get home. This is because they are afraid of being arrested or detained outside those TV stations. The conversation here, Sen. Cheruiyot, is that we now need to do certain things to facilitate a conversation to happen, starting with what we are doing here. We need to show remorse as leaders and stop threats to people who are expressing themselves. I am in a WhatsApp group and somebody shared a charge sheet of someone who is being arraigned in court because they said ‘Ruto must go.’ We must get to a place where if we are going to have a national conversation, let us allow people to express themselves. That is the only way we will hear what they have to say. We need to put aside our egos. I know some of the things that we are being told and directed at us are very humiliating. As leaders, we are not accustomed to this. However, it is the time to set egos aside and just listen. There is something very profound that the Senate Majority Leader told me yesterday. He said, “Sifuna, right now, there are no more political goals to be scored. There is no political game that is going on now because all of us in the political class are The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Director, Hansard and AudioServices, Senate."
}