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{
    "id": 196223,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/196223/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 165,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Mr. Mungatana",
    "speaker_title": "The Assistant Minister for Medical Services",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 185,
        "legal_name": "Danson Buya Mungatana",
        "slug": "danson-mungatana"
    },
    "content": " Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I want to thank you for giving me a few minutes to also make my points on this Motion. A suggestion has been made here in terms of the way forward. An hon. Member suggested that a Parliamentary Select Committee be set up to discuss the question of the IDPs and provide the way forward. Kenya is not the first country in the world to deal with the problem of IDPs. Kenya is amongst many countries of the world with IDPs. According to the statistics of 2006, there were 24.6 million IDPs across the world in 92 countries. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, in all these occasions, where the problems have been successfully resolved, it has been the responsibility of the state to do so. It has never been the responsibility of Parliament. Why is it so? Parliament, by its own definition, has different interests within it. Kenya is a respected member of the international community. Internationally, there is no treaty that specifically deals with IDPs like with refugees. What happened in 1992, some international guiding principles were set up. At that time, Butros Butros Ghali who was the General Secretary of United Nations Organisation, sent Mr. Francis Deng' to give us principles which we needed to operate on. April 23, 2008 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 655 Kenya being a member of the international community, we needed to follow those principles. I will give an example of a country which successfully carried out its re-settlement of IDPs. When we were growing up, we used to hear of bombings in Beirut. There was war in Beirut. The people of Lebanon followed the guiding principles that were accepted by the United Nations, and which were accepted under the African Charter on Human Rights. It has worked in other countries. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, in Lebanon, they formed a Ministry which was specifically in charge of IDPs. There was a Minister for IDPs. There was also a national programme that was set up and agreed upon. It was advertised. A sum of two hundred billion Lebanese Pounds were set aside for that purpose. In this country, we have the Ministry of Special Programmes that has been set up with a specific mandate. It has a department called the IDPs Department. What we need to agree on is a programme to be rolled out. When are we going to start, because---"
}