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{
"id": 1520579,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1520579/?format=api",
"text_counter": 173,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Dagoretti South, UDA",
"speaker_title": "Hon. John Kiarie",
"speaker": null,
"content": "This means making sure that the river gets back to its cause. This is because, as we speak today, we have been knocked off our track of organic cultural development and civilisation. This happened in a very systematic way when an ‘individual’ showed up in our country carrying four very dangerous things; a Bible, a gun, education and a government. With that, they rubbed off our cultures to the extent that today, any individual who professes the Christian faith can give you the lineage of one, Jesus Christ of Nazareth, all the way back to the house of David, Abraham, and his son Isaac and the creation story of Adam and Eve. They can give you a chronology of who gave birth to who up to the 10th generation. However, I struggle to give my own lineage beyond seven generations. I might profess that I am Kiarie, Kiarie wa Waweru, Waweru wa Ng’ethe, Ng’ethe wa Ngechi, Ngechi wa Kang’ora. However, five generations down, I get lost. As such, whatever it is that was housed in the language that I speak, faces a great danger today. I might be the last of our people who will speak the language that my father and mother spoke. To that extent, the discussion this afternoon is extremely important, when we juxtapose it with where the world is today. Currently, two great things affect culture in the world. One, globalisation and two, technology. These two things work hand in hand that, as we speak, there are large language models being developed using data that is scraped off the internet to form emerging technologies in Artificial Intelligence. 46.5 per cent of the data of the language models in the world of Artificial Intelligence and emerging technologies is in one language, English. German follows closely, and then Russian. At what point will my Gikuyu or Kamba language from my lineage be on-boarded onto this new development of the fourth industrial revolution? In my opinion, there is cultural appropriation going on. Throughout the history of our country, there are artefacts that have been plucked out, taken into exhibitions and monetised in museums abroad. When the two male man-eating lions of Tsavo, that did not have a mane – a spectacle to behold – were shot by one, John Henry Patterson, they were then taken to some museums in Western capitals, where they are to date. We are told by historians that one Koitalel arap Samoei was decapitated and his skull taken to museums abroad. Those museums charge an entry fee. There are researchers who carry out research out of the data in those museums. However, is the Tsavo community benefiting from the appropriation of that culture? Are the Kipsigis people benefiting from their leader being exhibited in a museum for close to a century now, and some more years to come? Therefore, there is need for a comprehensive legislative framework to support the integration of culture so that cultural properties heritage in this country are given a priority. Hon. Temporary Speaker, the critique to this Bill is that it is devoid of specificities. Its format and style are big on cultural artefacts. However, culture is larger than artefacts. There are many elements of culture that are not covered in this Bill, as it is. The options that we have, as a House, is to either pass it as it is and then amend it later. Alternatively, during the Committee of the whole House, we can use the existing clauses or introduce new clauses so as to cover a wider definition of culture beyond ‘cultural artefacts’. Since the Bill is big on cultural artefacts, we may not focus on intellectual property issues. Matters on intellectual property in the Bill are a bit shallow. We need to know whether that shall be covered in subsequent or subsidiary legislation or, maybe, in a regulation, or there shall be another Bill that will take care of intellectual property. Finally, it is important to note that the essence of this Bill is urgent. One, for the preservation and protection of our culture. Secondly, and most importantly, this House ratifies international treaties and conventions. The treaties that we have ratified, some by United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) and many others to do 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."
}