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{
    "id": 196209,
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    "speaker": null,
    "content": "Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I beg to support this Motion. This is a very sad day in this country. We are talking about thousands of Kenyans who have been staying in very horrifying conditions for the last four months. They have lost their lives and life savings. After the major political parties in the country struggled to form a Grand Coalition and shared power and seats, we are now back to discuss the plight of innocent Kenyans mixing it with all the political, regional and ethnic aspirations. We need to walk the moral high ground here. We need to offer leadership in this country. We need to preach peace and reconciliation. We need to nurture the Grand Coalition which is barely two weeks old. We need to save the lives of Kenyans who are living in the IDP camps. We know that there are a lot of underlying issues. There are issues to do with land, historical injustices and so on. I think we are walking an extra mile because we are going to form the Truth, Justice and Reconciliation Commission. We are going to address that. A Kenyan living in an IDP camp will not wait for us to address the historical injustices in this country. We must be very pragmatic. We must move and walk the moral high ground for us to be leaders in this country. It is a very sad day because we are talking of about 500,000 Kenyans. We are talking of Kenyans like you and I. I would like every Member of Parliament here to put himself or herself in the shoes of those Kenyans living in the IDP camps. Imagine that person is your brother, sister or just a Kenyan like you in that IDP camp. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, along that line, we must also tell the political leadership in this country, that is, the President and the Prime Minister that they should not invalidate the leadership April 23, 2008 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 653 of the various constituencies in Rift Valley Province and any other place. We must do an all- inclusive consultation where the leaders of the respective areas are consulted up to the grassroots level. That way, we will own whatever decision we reach at. It is not a matter of the Prime Minister of this country, the Head of State and a few other people to board a plane and go to the IDP camps. That is not the way we should move. It is very sad if what we are hearing in this House today is contrary to what we are seeing. We are being told that the President and the Prime Minister will go to respective constituencies when the Members for those constituencies are giving a different signal here. I urge Members of Parliament from all the political divides and any region in this country to be sincere and (very honest. We have shared the Government and Cabinet. We are about to share the various Parliamentary Committees. Let us not be very selfish. Let us move above regional politics and party politics. Let the 2007 General Election and the Presidential results be a bygone case. Let us bring this country together. Let us solve the problems facing our brothers and sisters living in the IDP camps. Let us look at ourselves as Kenyans. Let us not talk about death traps. Let us not talk about land issues. Everybody in this country knows that the land issue is a huge monster that can only be solved through a new constitutional dispensation. It is not an issue that a young Kenyan, an old Kenyan, men, women and children can wait for. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, finally, I want to urge my colleagues that the fragile Grand Coalition Government and Cabinet that we formed two weeks ago is in a very precarious situation today. If this is the way we are going to carry out peace and reconciliation, and if this is the way we want to prove to Africa and the world that coalitions can work in Africa, then we are cheating ourselves and this country. I can assure you that the life span of this Grand Coalition will be very short."
}