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"content": "Thank you, Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir. Speaking immediately after the contribution by the Assistant Minister, Ministry of State for Defence, I must make it absolutely clear why cattle rustling has continued in Kenya. It is not because our people love guns, or because they like butchering each other. The reason is basic absence of Government and Government security forces. Period! There is no amount of blame that can be put on the political leadership which can absolve the Government from blame, when we know the responsibility of governance. Protection of people's lives and property is solely the responsibility of the Government. All of us can only assist to a small extent. We do not have the monopoly of violence that the Government has. So, this point must be made very clear. The kind of thinking that is being displayed by the Government side is the same old thinking. There is a phenomena known as the \"cattle complex\". There is something you call the \"tragedy of the common\" - that, it is in the nature of these \"primitive savages\" to kill, just the way the Kikuyus were described by the colonialists in the 1950s. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, what is the source of small arms and light weapons? Who is in charge of Customs and Immigration? It is not us. It is the Government. Our borders are not manned. So, they allow infiltration of small arms and light weapons into our country. Our people are tired of the gun. They would like to give it up. But if you give away your gun, who is there to protect you? That is the basic question that the Assistant Minister should be asking himself. As I speak, there is a delegation from Uganda, organised by Oxfam and Amani, visiting Garissa, because the North Eastern Province has somehow managed to maintain some peaceful co- existence between communities. That is a different ball game. The Government of Uganda has come up with a specific development known as the \"Karamoja Development and Disarmament Programme\", which is integrated in a manner that you have to look at the security concerns and tie human security in totality, as well as the development agenda. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, that is what we will be calling upon the Government to implement in Kenya as the proposed Select Committee gets to work. I am glad that the proposed December 10, 2008 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 4005 membership of the Committee comprise of people who really understand this issue. We are going to prosecute this matter to the best of our abilities and demonstrate to this nation, once and for all, that we are not cattle rustlers by design or by default or by definition. There are limited economic activities, where our youth can expend their energy. We cannot talk about developing a place when security roads are not being repaired. We cannot even talk about repairing roads, because they are actually absent. We cannot talk about education of nomadic communities when there is no pasture development programme in place. I hope the Minister is listening. What we need is not just beefing up security, as we recommended before. We also need to make sure that an entire development programme - a marshal plan - is actually put in place to address the problem. We have had commissions of inquiry being set up to investigate small things like the Artur brothers as if we needed to know who they were. We know it is Government officers who allowed them in the country. They even became police officers. This Government knew all that and they spent money on the Commission of Inquiry to investigate that saga. When did this Government, since Independence, spend money in trying to get at the root cause of cattle rustling? They think it must be a military solution. They also think that it is a cultural activity. We are not cannibals! You should not think that we just love to butcher our own people or raid communities in our neighbouring countries, for example, Uganda and Sudan; who speak the same language . Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, if the City of Nairobi had no police, you can imagine the kind of problems you will get. Even now with the surveillance of the police, people still rob shops in the Central Business District. This is happening in the heart of the city. What about in the wilderness where there is no policing? The Government only tries to bring prescriptive military options that do not value life. That cannot be accepted in this House. Those days are long gone! Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, only last week, I raised the issue of three raids in three places in my constituency in one week; Monday to Friday. Nanan in Lokichoggio; Lorengito and Lokorio were raided. Last July, we suspended the business of the House in order to discuss the issue of insecurity and, particularly cattle rustling as a matter of national importance. This is the only place where the Government feels its officers should not work. The Government asks us to call for elders. That is why we are told to convene meetings. Elders are not paid to control insecurity. That is a job for the police, the Administration Police and intelligence officers. We have recommended that in Turkana, just as Uganda has an army along its boundaries, we should also have our army along our international boundaries. What does the Kenya Army do? Even the ones who were stationed at Lorogon were removed. What do you expect? You can only expect escalation of such clashes. We need army barracks in Lokiriama and Lorengito. Between Lodwar and Lorengito, a stretch of 180 kilometres, there is not a single police station. Is it not a wonder that this is a perennial problem? There is no single police station; not even a mobile one! Mr. Peter Munya used to be in the Office of the President. He knows these things. We are calling upon the Government to establish police stations in Lorugum, Rengiti, Kalemnyam and Kang'irisa. That is the only way we can control this problem. It is a normal problem which needs to be tamed. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, since there are other hon. Members who want to contribute, I want to pay tribute to NGOs like Oxfam, Practical Action and the Diocesan priests who have tried to alleviate the situation. I beg to support."
}