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{
    "id": 1568117,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1568117/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 296,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Kilifi North, UDA",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Owen Baya",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": " Hon. Deputy Speaker, I stand to support the Motion by Hon. Junet Mohamed. The events of 2007 are very fresh in my minds. Hearing somebody speak about them in such flowery language, that it would be like a Christmas party, pushes a chill down my spine. I was in Mwatate with my wife and my two children when the post-election violence started in 2007. One child was just six months old. I had to travel all the way from Mwatate to Voi to Kilifi when people started saying: “Kila mtu aende kwao”. Getting means of transport to move from Mwatate with a six-month-old baby was one of the most horrendous things I have ever gone through. I remember we boarded a lorry that was carrying cabbages. We were thrown at the back just to be protected and to avoid being seen. We were Giriamas in Taita at that time. Look at that, Hon. Deputy Speaker, inciting one community against the other. We got to Voi and tried to get means of transport to Mombasa. It was difficult. A van carrying and selling The Nation Newspapers came by and stopped while we were there. They offered to take us to Voi in exchange of Ksh10,000. We did not have the money. One gentleman there said: “Namjua huyu mwalimu”. I was a teacher then. They bundled my wife, our three- year-old girl, the six-month-baby, and I at the back with the newspapers. There was no oxygen. There was nothing. I remember my three-year-old daughter actually passed out because we were being carried at the back of that van. The van traversed, but could not go through Mombasa because there was chaos. We had to go through the Mariakani route. It was not tarmacked then. We went through Kaloleni until we got to Kilifi. Hon. Deputy Speaker, I will never forget when we got to a place called Mtondia in Kilifi, the road had been barricaded. At that time, very many Luos lived in Mtondia. The Giriamas wanted the Luos to go back to their home. I watched death approach my family. People came hitting that vehicle with pangas and asking: “Who is being ferried in here? They must get out.” We alighted out there shaken, with a six-month-old baby and a three-year-old girl. Just one old man said: “I know the father of this man.” That is how we were saved from death. I do not understand what kind of a mind is in a leader who stands up to remind us that 2007 will look like a Christmas party if elections do not go a certain way. Yet that person calls himself a leader. That person must remain condemned. I seconded the Motion of his impeachment when it came to this House, but I think it was not enough. Hon. Geoffrey Rigathi Gachagua must be brought back to this House for another impeachment for the kind of things he is talking about and inciting Kenyans against each other. We need to hold this country together. The country must remain united and never again will one tribe be set against the other. What Hon. Geoffrey Rigathi Gachagua is doing is trying to set the tribes against one another. He sees himself as a leader of one section and tribe in this country against other Kenyans. That can never happen. Kikuyu people are good. They are all over the country. We love and respect them. We marry them and they marry from us. Therefore, we have integrated. 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."
}