GET /api/v0.1/hansard/entries/197050/?format=api
HTTP 200 OK
Allow: GET, PUT, PATCH, DELETE, HEAD, OPTIONS
Content-Type: application/json
Vary: Accept

{
    "id": 197050,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/197050/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 257,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Mr. Omingo",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 180,
        "legal_name": "James Omingo Magara",
        "slug": "omingo-magara"
    },
    "content": "I thank you, Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, for this opportunity to contribute and support the Motion of Adjournment. However, I want to highlight two or three issues that we must go home with. I remember when the President of the Republic of Kenya went to KICC for prayers, and when he came here, he reiterated the fact that God loves Kenya. The problem facing our country is greed. We have seen people who want to carry everything and yet God has given each one of us something to enjoy. The problem we have is that the greed that we have in our country and the kind of impunity with which we are doing things, is paining other Kenyans. I want to give an analogy about two brothers who were given a nice delicious meal by their mother called Mother Kenya. The two brothers were actually given a condition, that the only way they could feed is by using a long spoon. You know very well that with a long spoon, you may never get the food into your mouth. It was not until an uncle came and told them, \"Look, at the rate at which each one of you is looking for his mouth selfishly, both of you are going to die of starvation. What you need to do is to allow one of you to scoop the food and feed the other.\" At the end of the day, they both fed and actually enjoyed. What we lack in this country is selflessness. Each one of us is extremely selfish. Truly, if we say what we mean and do what we say, we will go to places. To the extent that we embraced the Accord and shook hands, if we meant it, Kenya should have had a complete Government operating today. Again, there is grandstanding. I am telling each one of us seated here today that grandstanding will not help anybody. At the end of the day, we shall all suffer. It must be a give- and-take situation. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I can see the Minister for Education, Prof. Ongeri, seated over there today. I wish he could listened to me! He should take this moment to speed up investigation into the Kenya National Examinations Council (KNEC). The problem we have today is that people March 25, 2008 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 403 continue to occupy offices when they are being investigated. The investigators say: \"No stone will be left unturned\"; to the extent that even that stone being unturned becomes too heavy to be turned. Indeed, we cannot carry our own weight. You had better step aside for you to be checked. I suggest that the hon. professor sends those officers home, so that he can investigate them and get to the bottom of the matter. If you are being investigated while you are in office, you can equally divert attention. For the sake of the credibility of the KNEC, since the Minister will not be coming to Parliament to answer Questions, he should speed up that investigation. First of all, he should disband the KNEC. It is a shame and an embarrassment to this country. I do not know whether at the KNEC there is a Form 16A, which was being tallied by somebody else, as the Minister told us here today: \"Mr. Speaker, Sir, there was a computer error. There will be an investigation into that matter. If somebody is found to have made a mistake, the matter shall be dealt with. I do not know whether to believe the computer or the person.\" However, that person is still in office. We need to be honourable enough. In some advanced democracies, you step aside when an embarrassment comes on your way as was the case in the Watergate Scandal. In Malaysia, for example, if there is a power failure for a half a minute, the Minister for Energy, the officer equivalent to the Managing Director of the Kenya Power and Lighting Company, and the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Energy, is sacked or resigns. They are sent home. However, in Kenya, nobody takes responsibility over the power failure; shamelessly, regardless of what pain it gives you! It is high time that Kenyans spoke the truth. We have seen people of high integrity stand in front of a television, saying falsehoods in front of their grandchildren, who know computer. How can you be credible when you cannot stand and call a wrong by its name, or a right by its name? That is how we are losing our moral fabric. We complain that our children have gone wayward. Who are we, in the first place? What examples do we give them? In public and in the glare of the media, you just swear that you got the right things when you know, for sure, that it is not the right thing! We must also reform. God made this Parliament or the leadership of this country. So, you must not swear by the Bible when you know for sure that you are swearing over falsehoods. It is important that we change our mindset. Let us own up when an issue has badly affected us. With those few remarks, I beg to support."
}