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{
    "id": 182719,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/182719/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 549,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Mr. Affey",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 381,
        "legal_name": "Mohammed Abdi Affey",
        "slug": "mohammed-affey"
    },
    "content": "Thank you, Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, for giving me this opportunity to contribute to this very important Motion. Indeed, we have a crisis in this country. I want to thank the hon. Member for moving this Motion. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I will begin by appealing to the communities in Mandera, particularly those who are fighting now to stop the war. I want to appeal to them to reconcile and stop the conflict. However, as I appeal to them, it looks like there is a reason why people are fighting. It is not possible that people who are neighbours, brothers and sisters wake up and hack each other to death. The Government has a responsibility to protect these Kenyans. I want to squarely put the blame where it belongs. It is the Government's failure to understand the conflict itself. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, we have an intelligence department, defence department and the Office of the President. It is, therefore, not possible that even after all the Members of Parliament from northern Kenya assembled in Naivasha a few months ago and advised the Government on what should be done, a few months later, the same mistakes are made. We talked about resources and incitement, particulary by leaders. The Government should be responsible for this because the right to protect people's property is vested in the Government. As we debate this Motion, we request the Minister, who in my view has tried, but there is need to do more. Yesterday, a Government officer got killed. We are told that Administration Police Officers in villages in Mandera are under the mercy of clan militia. If they leave their station, the police officers themselves become victims of those marauding gangs. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, there is need to re-assess Government priorities. We had requested that the armed forces personnel patrol the entire borderline between Somali and Kenya to stop the infiltration of small arms. However, we do not have them along the border line yet. I think there is need for the Government to do this. This would be a deterrent to anybody who wants to commit crime. We have asked that the Ministry of Water and Irrigation, together with the Office of the President, continue to drill boreholes in places where communities fight over scarce resources. But it seems this is not sinking in the Government. It does not seem to be taken seriously. It is when people die over water and pasture that we have an emergency programme for drilling water, but after we have lost people. To avoid this, I woiuld like to plead with the Minister to co-ordinate with the other departments of the Government to drill as many boreholes as the communities in northern Kenya require. I want to thank the Mover for bringing this Motion."
}