Entry Instance

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

{
    "id": 1478823,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1478823/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 158,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Bondo, ODM",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Gideon Ochanda",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": " Thank you, Hon. Temporary Speaker. I want to quickly mention a few things that, in my view, Kenya needs to be very careful about. First, is the place of museums. If you compare the place of museums in this country to other parts of the world, you will realize that we are very far from where those people are. We are far from what many other countries have isolated as their core historical, scientific or cultural developments. Museums ordinarily indicate how people have evolved over time. They are in place to preserve evolution history in terms of how we do things like agriculture, production and many other things. However, if you look at our situation, the first problem we encounter is who does the collection of artifacts and tools? Who identifies where to collect or get those things? Before you start talking about building infrastructure for storing them, who does them? If somebody came across some old technology in the village, for example, the grinding stones, which in my view are scientific as much as they are for the purpose of culture, history and how food was produced... How do you want to compare that with the meals that we have currently? It indicates exactly how we have developed and evolved over a period of time. Who does that? Who identifies that what I have talked about was really a scientific engagement? Identification of those things is one big challenge that we have. Many are disregarded and strewn all over and nobody really connects them with the evolution that we have experienced over a period of time. This is the biggest challenge we have as a country. Secondly, have we seen what other museums have evolved to? Museums in the rest of the world have evolved from just being indicators of evolution to being real spots for tourism. If you go to some of those big cities and ask what the best sites are, museums will be featuring all over! They will be located in one part of the city or the other. They are no longer looking at museums as just storage of science history, but as spots to attract tourists. The Roman artifacts, including their ancient roads, remain historic. Roads that were built in the 17th to 18th century still exist. What was the science behind the construction of those roads? If you go to London today, you will realise that people are staying in houses that were built in the 18th to 19th century. What is the science behind that when our houses here in Githurai are collapsing in under three years? What is it that was behind that? In my view, those are some of the things that need to be collected deliberately. The Mover needs to seriously consider how to identify what should be retained. Who is able to identify for us the first house or mansion that was built by our first Jua kali artisans ? What was the first house that they did? Where is it and is it still surviving? What is it that was done that our current houses cannot stand for five years? Those are the reasons why museums are very necessary. Apart from being the evidence of evolution, there are also reference points that something happened or was done and it has withstood the test of time and, hence, it still exists today."
}