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"id": 174450,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/174450/?format=api",
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"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Mr. Farah",
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"legal_name": "Farah Maalim Mohamed",
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"content": "Mr. Speaker, Sir, as I stand to support this Motion, I want to plead with hon. Members, who are in this august House, that whereas we have had democracy in this country, pseudo or factual, right from Independence up to now, Parliament has for once a very good reputation as having stood for the rights of Kenyans, and hon. Members having suffered in the past while fighting for expansion of democratic space in the country and the welfare of this country. But hon. Members are also notorious for having divided this country over a period of time. I think if we fail this time, we will not have an excuse in the eyes of Kenyans any more. We have an opportunity, historical opportunity that we need to seize. We have promoted ethnicization of politics in this country by the politicians themselves, purely for the expediency and trying to access political power. But what we fail to understand is that each one of us will only go back to his own ethnic community to seek their mandate to become a Member of Parliament. I do not have to go to Nyanza or Western Province voters to be elected as the Member of Parliament for Lagdera. But because of the system we have had over a period of time, when we come in here, then we want to become presidents of this country we start playing the tribal card, because then you need communities to be amalgamated into blocks of voters, and that is where the divisions start. Mr. Speaker, Sir, I want to tell on hon. Members and the leadership of this country at the highest level that we need to discard populist politics. I am saying this applies right from the President, the Vice-President, the Prime Minister, Ministers and every hon. Member in here, because that is where the problem is. We are going to put together a team of nine people who are going to give us a Constitution. We need to go for the best! Whereas we are going for regional balance, let hon. Members or Members of the Committee not use this as an opportunity to popularise themselves in their own constituencies, because they need to send a message that \"I have put so and so in office!\" That is the problem! The other thing is that, when we promote nationalism, we all go far. We allow people to come and preach ethnicity amongst ourselves at the expense of our own sovereignty. An ambassador will stand up in this country right now and talk about our own internal politics, and nobody talks about it. But the moment something is mentioned in here, we are quick to rise up and say: \"It is this community or that community!\" In this House here, not many hon. Members will stand and defend our sovereignty when it is being attacked by second or third rate envoys, who have no business getting involved in our own internal politics. I think that we have an opportunity right now to rise to the occasion the same way it was when we got Independence, to exercise our nationalism and Kenyanism, and create an environment for the future of this country. Mr. Speaker, Sir, the other thing is that we need to respect Parliament. We as legislators are quick to say that this is the supreme organ of the country or Government, but here we are ridiculing ourselves. If you go to any Parliament, for example, the House of Commons, every Member of Parliament, when he stands up to address it, even when he wants to disagree with another Member of Parliament, there is decorum and a respectful way of addressing them. For"
}