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"id": 191784,
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"speaker_name": "Dr. Eseli",
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"legal_name": "David Eseli Simiyu",
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"content": ". He will think that if he is posted to a place like Ukambani, all the Kambas are witches. That is the stereotyping that the child has grown up with. I remember our days in education when we could do Certificate of Primary Education (CPE) anywhere in this country and choose any secondary school and go there. Indeed, it was reducing ethnicity. But when we started this system of district focus, we have entrenched ethnicity in our minds to the extent that everybody graduating from the university right now has ethnic leaning. You find ethnic-based university students organisations masquerading as district student organisations. That is how badly ethnicity has been entrenched in this country. Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, usually, many people fear change. For such a Bill, many people might fear - both the victims and the villains because they do not know what it holds for them. However, I dare say that given the way we have lived our lives in this country, this Bill was long overdue. Yes, it might have flaws, but that can be corrected by referring it to the Departmental Committee on Administration of Justice and Legal Affairs to fine-tune it, in case it has such flaws at all. But really, the essence of the Bill in trying to control our ethnicity is long overdue. We have failed to control ethnicity in this country. So, we need legislation. Many times, when you have got a pack of pets, say like dogs, and they have stolen something and eaten it, you will not be able to identify which dog did it, until you lift the stick! The dog which did it would start running away. I think many people are fearing this Bill because, maybe, they are the dogs that ate the canary. So, they want to run off. However, the fact is we all participated. We are all participants in the ethnicity of this country and, if we cannot control it by loving your neighbour alone, as the Bible says, then we need a law to govern it. We need some ombudsman to watch over our run-away ethnicity. It is such run-away ethnicity that, when it comes to employment, we tend to employ people from our own ethnic communities. When anybody gets an opportunity, he or she calls people of their ethnic community to participate, either in the ravaging or theft of national resources. In fact, ethnicity has promoted corruption in this country. If we fear and say that we do not want this Bill because we fear that, maybe, we did something in the past and the Bill might catch up on us--- Remember, somebody else may do something against you in future and yet, you have thrown out this Bill at this moment. I think what we need to do is to accept that it is in good faith, sit down, fine-tune it and make it better so that we can administer it better than it is at the moment. When you look at things like employment, I have had opportunity to work in very many areas, including the Armed Forces, the Civil Service and the university systems. You realise that the ethnicity involved is so severe that anybody going out there to recruit candidates for any place, is looking out for his or her ethnic community. In fact, one might wonder why I have jumped from job to job. Mainly, it has been ethnicity that has been pushing me out of jobs. I am even in Parliament because of ethnicity. My tribesmen voted me here. I guess, with time, they might change their minds and kick me out again. So, it has been either I get a job out of ethnicity or lose a job out of ethnicity. I know many of us in this House have experienced the same. By refusing to look at this Bill, we are blinding ourselves that we are safe. We are not safe! We are not safe because of our poverty. Because of poverty, therefore, resources become very important. When resources are scarce, then ethnicity will play a role. We need to govern and control that ethnicity. Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, when you look at the way that Commission should be constituted, I think that if you go through the provisions one by one, you will identify several places that need to be changed. For example, Section 6(2)(d) where it says:- July 1, 2008 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 1521 \"No person shall be qualified for appointment for a Commissioner if such a person has promoted sectoral, ethnic, racial or religious animosity or openly advocated for partisan ethnic positions or interests.\" That would be very difficult to prove! That will be very difficult to prove because, as we sit here, many of us have participated in ethnicity at one time or the other. We are, therefore, disqualified from being members of the proposed commission. So, we might need to look at this provision more carefully, because it is difficult to prove that. Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, on how the commissioners and the chairperson can be removed from office, we have said that the President can ask for removal of a commissioner of a chairperson for misbehaviour or misconduct. As the previous speaker said, the State has been the main perpetrator of ethnicity. If we allow the President to have a say on how this commission will function, we are, again, giving the President too much power. So, I believe that this commission should be divorced totally from the President. Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, as far as the remuneration of the chairperson and the commissioners is concerned, this should be direct from the Consolidated Fund, without passing through the Minister concerned, so that we give the commission some measure of independence. We all know that it is very important to give the commission financial independence, if we want it to discharge its duties without fear or favour. Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, when we talk of this commission promoting equal access and enjoyment by persons of all ethnic communities to public or other services and facilities provided by the Government, we need to be more specific. Many times, it has been said: \"We gave this to such an area because people there did not have it.\" Nobody will mention that other areas also do not have that resource. So, we need to be very specific on that kind of thing. In whole, Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, I agree that this Bill was long overdue. It should have come to this House earlier. However, we need to go through it with a fine tooth comb and make it more user friendly. By and large, I support that Bill."
}