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{
    "id": 1520570,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1520570/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 164,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Kwanza, FORD-K",
    "speaker_title": "Hon Ferdinand Wanyonyi",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": " At long last! Hon. Temporary Speaker, I want to take this opportunity to first of all thank all the Members who have contributed to this Bill. They have exhausted the Bill. As the previous speaker has just mentioned, we should take action during the Committee of the whole House. When the President assents to this Bill, we must move forward. There are so many things that have gone wrong. I am a little older than some of the Members here and I can tell you things have gone out of hand. In the next 50 years or even 20 years, Kenya will not be the Kenya that you and I would have admired to be in. Things are going haywire. I come from Luhyaland where we had very good cultures like the Luhya circumcision ceremonies. We had a special way of going to circumcision. Today, it is a laughing stock. I want to agree with somebody who has mentioned something about those days. I saw those days through my elder brothers and neighbours. One walked to circumcision naked. You would go to a river and then walk for almost two or three kilometres to your home after circumcision in the open. Nothing like that happens today. Things have gone off. Those days, in fact, as recent as two to four years ago, a married boy could not greet his mother-in-law. It was not for anything else but respect. Today, he can go and hug the mother-in-law, which is actually wrong. It is not supposed to be like that in our culture. We have a problem. We must protect this country. I have a specific case of the Bomas of Kenya. Those who have not gone there should do so now. It is no longer the Bomas of Kenya we used to know. It was an area of cultural preservation. The Bomas of Kenya is no more. Bomas of Kenya had the culture of the Maasais, Kikuyus, Luos, Luhyas and others. You could see that culture is very impressive. You would go there and pay money and then you are allowed to be there for some time. You would get back saying: “Okay, this is how this community behaved.” Again, that is gone. Things are not the same. Now, it is just a business area and other things are going on. I was asking my colleague here about the Ministry concerned with culture and sports. We should revive it and give guidelines to preserve and maintain our most important cultures. For sure, I know people now want to behave like the Mzungu colonialists who came to Africa. Again, that is now something under the bridge. We just have to behave our way. In Luhya culture for example, a child going to marry had to pay almost 13 cows. There is nothing like that today. There is nothing like that. Actually, a Luhya boy marrying a person from another area paid money before the wedding. Today, it is no longer there. They talk of just understanding each other. I do not want to mention my brother who was getting married. We should do something about it. I ask Members of Parliament to have very good interventions when the Bill comes to the Third Reading. It can correct some of the areas we feel should be corrected. It is for the The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor."
}