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{
    "id": 196056,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/196056/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 109,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Mr. Ethuro",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 158,
        "legal_name": "Ekwee David Ethuro",
        "slug": "ekwee-ethuro"
    },
    "content": ", that is the village. That if you are a Somali in Bungoma, Turkana or Kisumu, you are asked to go back to Mandera border point or Wajir so that you get an identity card from there. We do not wish to hear these kind of things when this Motion is implemented. Mr. Kajwang, Pambanakabisa! In fact, if you do not know, you will not seem to appreciate the impact of what lack of voter and identity cards can do to you. It is just like week that hon. Dr. Machage and Mr. Kamama are no longer in the Cabinet. The appointing authority looked at their numbers and realised that they can dispense with them. You know we in the marginalised areas are treated like you go to that duka in your local shopping centre and there is that small old banner reading: Hakuna deni hapa na ukitakadeni, kuja na babu na nyanya wako wenye umri wa miaka zaidi ya mia moja na ambao wote wakohai. This is exactly what we are doing to the Kenyan people. We need to change it. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, hon. Members have raised the issue that this should not be an opportunity to abuse procurement. It is true since part of the Anglo Leasing Scam has to do with that passport. However, I want to believe that this Government is serious with reforms, transparency, accountability and zero tolerance to corruption. That should not discourage us. We just have to be alert and make sure that we are doing what is right. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, there was only one dissenting voice and which harped on what he called privacy. Believe you me, all the great countries like America--- I had also an opportunity with the Vision 2030 team to lead the Kenyan delegation to Denmark. They know from day one how many people visited which village. Data is extremely useful. We need our national data system to start factoring this. It is how we use it. I can only deduce that kind of proposition can only be coming from the recycled relics from an ignonimous past that do not want us to make progress. We, as country and House, have to make progress. No amount of privacy will deter us. This is a matter we can deal with in terms of what information is provided to the public and our security agencies. A nation that does not know its populace cannot effectively provide services and security to its citizenry. That is part of the problem. In any case, if we think we have been good at it, then why are we having all these problems? Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, people have raised the issue of ethnicity where the identity card is being used as a tool for ethnicity or ethnic cleansing. I think this is a good recommendation that the Minister will need to take into account. The committee that he is proposing to form should be looking at all these kind of other issues, whether maybe that is the information that they can only have in the data base. This information does not have to be reflected on the document itself, so that any Kenyan can feel extremely safe to move anywhere in the Republic. But more fundamentally, it is the rot in the political system that is making us stop public transport like buses and matatus and ask people for their identity. It is not a problem of the people. It is a political problem. We, as politicians, have a responsibility to go out there and teach our people that there is nothing wrong with a Kikuyu born and brought up in Turkana District and viceversa or any other community. There is nothing wrong with coming from a particular community. We are all Kenyans and we need to be proud of it. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, as the Attorney-General said the other day, there comes a tide in the affairs of men. That tide is now. Over to you, Mr. Minister. I beg to move. 612 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES April 23, 2008"
}