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"id": 184952,
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"speaker_name": "Ms. Ongoro",
"speaker_title": "The Assistant Minister for Nairobi Metropolitan Development",
"speaker": {
"id": 125,
"legal_name": "Elizabeth Ongoro Masha",
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"content": " Thank you, Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker. I rise to support this very, very important Motion. I thank you, hon. Mututho, for bringing this Motion. Over the years, I have realised that we, as a country, are living in a state of great hypocrisy. That is because those people that we now refer to as \"freedom fighters\", gave us a platform of the freedom that we are now enjoying. They put their lives on the line and, in many cases, you read in the newspapers when one of them passes on, then we all troop to their various villages and give them \"state funerals\" as has been observed. Honestly speaking, what they fought for was nothing other than land. They were not fighting for an allocation of shares in any company. They were fighting to protect the land. The land issue is still really critical even at this time. But we must recognize that those who started the fight should be given what they deserve. It is not actually a favour; it is actually a moral obligation upon this nation! We must reach out to those families, even of those who have already departed, and give them some parcel of land. It is really shameful for one Kenyan to own 500,000 acres when another Kenyan, who actually fought for that same land before that other Kenyan was born, is living in abject poverty! Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, while we consider this very, very good action, we must also realise that wars are fought in many ways. There were those who availed themselves physically and went to the bush to fight. But there were those who were fighting intellectual wars at that time! There were those who were facilitating like, for example, the women who were providing our fighters with food and moral support. There were also those communities which, in one way or the other, as has been indicated by hon. Wamalwa, made it quite difficult and gave a very, very important boost to the whole process. Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, my proposal is that every community should be consulted. As we talk about every community in Kenya, one way or the other, some contributed more. But I believe that every community is able to identify one or two people who were involved in the process in one way or the other. While we consider the compensation process, I want to also say that, over the years, even as we sit here in this House, we are fighting yet another war. And this should not just go towards recognising those who fought before. But can we have a policy of recognising those who contribute critically in every generation of this country? It should not just be those who fought physically. In every generation, we have those who have contributed critically towards certain things. Like now, very shortly, we are going to debate the Constitution of this country. I believe that if we have a Government policy that will recognise, in every generation, those who will fight the very many different kind of wars; intellectual, physical or otherwise, should be recognised in one way or the other. Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, with those few remarks, I beg to support fully, and I hope we are going to soberly debate this Motion and, probably, implement every recommendation that is contained in it. Thank you, Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker."
}