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"id": 196006,
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"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Mr. Ethuro",
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"speaker": {
"id": 158,
"legal_name": "Ekwee David Ethuro",
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"content": "I come from Lodwar! Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, you need an identity card in order to access other services, but where I come from those services are not available. Therefore, in the first place, they do not see why they have to buy this document at an exorbitant price of Kshs100, yet they hardly use it except for purposes of voting. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, what crime have our youths committed? We ask people who cannot be in a position to be engaged in any meaningful employment, just because they have changed from being teenagers to being adults, to pay a price. These issues must be troubling the Minister. These issues will make the Minister realise that it is extremely important that Kenyan children, who attain the age of adulthood, be recognised and appreciated by being granted that very important document. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, many people cannot vote because they do not have identity cards. Voting is so critical. It is a birth right that every Kenyan must be entitled to. This Motion calls upon the Minister to ensure that every Kenyan, who has attained that age, gets an identity card which then automatically becomes a voter's card. That way the Kenyan youth will have the ability and capacity to participate in the public life of the Republic by electing their leaders. The Minister will not want to heed to the request in this Motion only if he wants us to accept the tendency by the political class to retain the oldies and prevent the youth from electing their own. Such a move would be in bad taste, and the Kenyan youth will be watching. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, this Motion wants to ensure that all people vote and exercise their democratic right. It is part of the reforms agenda. It is a part of a desire by the Kenyan nation to look at its democratic credentials to ensure that each and every member of the society has the capacity to cast their vote so that when we declare the final winner of a Presidential election, Parliamentary election or a Civic election, we have someone we know, and as observers say, represents the will of the people. Are you going to tell us that whoever will be elected, we who are sitting in this House will say, represents the will of a segment of our population? We want each and every member of our society to participate fully in the exercise of their democratic right, which means voting leaders that they want and respect and who have the confidence to deliver. Perhaps, this will also help us in containing some of the post-election violence. Maybe some people did not even vote and they do not know whether you voted properly or not. That brings confusion in their minds. That makes them vulnerable to political machinations. However, had they exercised their right properly, then maybe the skirmishes would not have taken place. This is an obvious matter. I do not need to belabour the House on such a matter because each and every Member here would have wanted as many votes as they could have got. However, they are constrained by lack of identity cards among our people. April 23, 2008 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 593 In northern Kenya, sometimes we have to dig deep into our pockets to ferry officers to issue those cards to our people. That is not our job. We want, in terms of accountability and transparency, the Government to pay for the services it has promised Kenyans. Hon. Members should carry out other duties and not pay allowances to officers to go and take pictures and to ferry them to areas where people need to acquire identity cards. We want the Minister to sambaza the identity cards to all Kenyans. With those few remarks, I beg to move and request Mr. C. Kilonzo to second the Motion."
}