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{
"id": 196146,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/196146/?format=api",
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"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Mr. Wetangula",
"speaker_title": "The Minister for Foreign Affairs",
"speaker": {
"id": 210,
"legal_name": "Moses Masika Wetangula",
"slug": "moses-wetangula"
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"content": " Thank you, Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, for allowing me to contribute to this Motion. I must congratulate whoever moved the Motion because it is long overdue. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, the plight of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs), as we discuss, is a sort of eyesore to this country. In fact, it is a shame that we have Kenyans being referred to as IDPs. It is a shame that we have Kenyans who, because of the quarrel in the political class, have been uprooted and routed from their lawful homes. It is a shame that we have Kenyans living in tents, hovels, showgrounds and on shop pavements because we have disagreed and we are feeling the heat. They are suffering! The events of December last year and January this year that led to this shameful chapter in the history of this country should be something we should put behind us through action. It is important that having reached a settlement--- Indeed, Agenda Items one and two were the key negotiation agenda that we were dealing with to settle IDPs. To date, we preach a grand coalition and I still hear, rather absurdly, some degree of double-speak from some of us on the issue of settling our own brothers and sisters, our fathers and mothers and our own children. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, the idea of people going to their homes should not be subject to any negotiations. It should not be subject to any conditions or any pre-conditions because every Kenyan has a right to own property anywhere. Every Kenyan has a right to live anywhere. Anything different is a flout of our Constitution and is a violation of human rights of the people of this county who are affected. Above all, it is a terrible shame to this country. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I want to urge my colleagues from affected areas not to engage in unhelpful grandstanding, politics and brinkmanship that does not help this country. I was embarrassed to see some of our colleagues on television last night listing a chain of conditions as to how and why IDPs should be allowed to go back home. As leaders of this country, and everybody in this House have the potential of rising above being an ordinary Member of Parliament. If you really have the interest of leading this country either individually or collectively, how can you, in your right senses, ever imagine that you have to set conditions for someone to go back to his own home? It is a big shame and we should condemn it with the harshest language available in our vocabulary. We, as a Government, are building police stations in affected areas. However, I have said and I want to say it again, that a police station and the presence of a police officer can only provide a temporary deterrent. The greatest security to any Kenyan is his or her immediate neighbour. If you are not at peace with your neighbour, it does not matter how many policemen are in your neighbourhood. Who cultivates this security? It is we, the leaders. It is our reckless tongues from us that ignite the problem. We then have a duty to go back the day after and sort out the mess. It is important that we now move together. We are now mixed up here and we do not know which side stands for what. We must move equally in the same breath and go to Cherangani, Endebes, Eldoret, Nakuru, Naivasha, Burnt Forest and everywhere else and tell our people to go back to their farms. Those of us who come from ethnic communities that caused either directly or indirectly the displacement of fellow Kenyans, we must go and tell our people that this is something that must be stopped. This is something that must---"
}