HTTP 200 OK
Allow: GET, PUT, PATCH, DELETE, HEAD, OPTIONS
Content-Type: application/json
Vary: Accept
{
"id": 194322,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/194322/?format=api",
"text_counter": 261,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Mr. Kabando wa Kabando",
"speaker_title": "The Assistant Minister for Youth Affairs",
"speaker": {
"id": 31,
"legal_name": "Kabando wa Kabando",
"slug": "kabando-kabando"
},
"content": " Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I rise to support this Motion not so much because of tradition. If this country were to stick to traditions, we would remain very unconventional. We would not entertain any new ways of 1074 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES May 14, 2008 thinking. We would be thinking within the box. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, when I learnt of this Motion, I took liberty to request for my constituency pollstar to send a 100 short text messages (SMSs). Out of 100 SMSs, 82 replies were received. On processing that poll, I found that 93 per cent, indeed, said they need me to be on the ground for the next three weeks. Therefore, it is not only a question of being collectively tied by traditions. It is also a question of harvesting from the position and the interest of my constituents. In the next three weeks, we need to finish the Report of the Ninth Parliament in our constituencies. They still exist because we are in the Financial Year 2007/2008. There are various reports that need to be compiled and submitted by the end of the Financial Year, which is coming in the next two weeks; that is, June 2008. We also need to have time to develop new plans for the Financial Year 2008/2009. That is a very serious undertaking. We understand that there is a lot of work to be done and it needs to be done. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, also as a House, we need to be empathetic and compassionate. There are hon. Members of this House who may not have had an opportunity by various reasons, either of their meetings, or environment on the ground, who have not gone home. These Members are yearning to be taken home. So, they need to have homecoming parties so that they can, at least, go home since they were elected in December. That is very important matter. Otherwise, they will disconnect with the ground, no matter what they will bring to this House. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, the position of an Opposition is important. It is obvious that the Opposition apparent is the Back Bench. There is also the Opposition presumptive that is being contemplated by hon. some Members. I do not think it will create a good image for any Government Minister or anybody in the Executive to talk down on fellow legislators either within or without the House. In fact, it gives an impression that we are becoming arrogant and self- serving. As a Member of the Executive, I support the intention to have a grouping of Members Parliament who are well organised, where they can execute their role of checkmating the respective Ministries, in addition to the watchdog Committees that we have in this House. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, Kenya has been blemished internationally. That is why we have had a decline in the number of tourists coming to this country. A lot of articles in the European cities and the United States, mostly depicting this country as a hopeless nation and a nation at war, have been published, but we have some opportunities. As I speak, we have a few weeks to have one of the Kenyan American citizen, Senator Barrack Obama to either wrap it in the Democratic nominations in the US--- I want to inform this House that some hon. Members of this House who are under 45 years have come together to use the next three weeks to constitute a strategy that is going to percolate not just the missions here, but also oversees to say that for once, we have a brand of a great Kenyan who is likely to enhance a good image of this country in the Pentagon and in the White House. I think that is an opportunity to sell the image of Kenya. We must appreciate that an intellectual emanated from this nation, many decades ago and left a very important brilliant seed, an important gem in America and that gem is a great phenomenon. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, also in the next three weeks, we will be having an opportunity to appreciate the role of this House to call on the Congress in the US to present its reports to the Senate so that the name of Mr. Nelson Mandela, the great son of Africa, is actually removed from the list of people blacklisted from visiting the USA. I think we have external roles, outside the arena of this House, to make the voice of Kenyan legislators heard and appreciated. This calls for the international public policy to be increasingly positive. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I conclude by saying that we have an opportunity for this year to be the year of miracles; to reduce suspicions and to make sure that whatever engagements we have are positive and that they are in the interests of the diversity that is the Kenyan people. Thank you, Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir. May 14, 2008 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 1075"
}