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"id": 197186,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/197186/?format=api",
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"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Mr. Linturi",
"speaker_title": "The Member for Igembe South",
"speaker": {
"id": 69,
"legal_name": "Franklin Mithika Linturi",
"slug": "franklin-linturi"
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"content": " Thank you, Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, for giving me this chance to address this House for the first time. I actually got frustrated yesterday when I rose 16 times without being noticed by Mr. Speaker. I thought today would be the same, but I thank God that you have been able to notice me. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, let me first begin by thanking the people of Igembe South for giving me this opportunity to serve in this House as their Member of Parliament. I want to promise them that I will not let them down. I will serve them with dedication. I also promise to support whatever Bill that comes to this House for the interest of this country and, particularly, for the interest of the people of Igembe. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, let me also pay tribute to the two major Principals in this country for withstanding the pressure that was around them and making a decision that this country should come together and everybody should work as brothers and sisters. By so doing, they were able to come up with an agreement that brought about peace in this country. I want to say that, to me, the Tenth Parliament is baptism by fire. It is baptism by fire because of the challenges that face this House. The challenges that face this House are so enormous that each one of us here has the responsibility to live to the expectations of Kenyans! We should face the challenge of eradicating ethnicity, corruption and inequitable distribution of resources. I want to say that, that will not be achieved if there is no change within ourselves. We must change in our hearts and agree, as leaders, to eradicate ethnicity and do away with corruption. I am saying that because we, as politicians, are very selfish. We come here and talk very good things and preach peace. But when we get out of this place, the things that we do at night are horrible. I am saying that because whatever happened immediately after the 27th December, 2007 General Elections, to me, was not really spontaneous as some hon. Members of this House would want us to believe. I believe that the politicians had a great part to play in whatever happened in this country. We really need to pray to God to forgive us. It is a shame, indeed, when our own 342 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES March 20, 2008 brothers turn against one another. I remember very well that when that was going on, I was called from Nairobi. That is because a number of Merus had been killed on the other side of this country. They really wanted to revenge because they had already thought that this country was about a brother against one another. I had to move with speed and one of the members that we, really, rescued was a senior Government officer who worked in the Department of Lands in my own district. I said: \"No! This is our brother. Forget what is happening on the other side! Let us all agree to live together because we really need one another. We exhibit a type of symbiotic relationship such that we cannot live without the other.\" I think it is important for us leaders to take it as our responsibility to heal this country. It cannot only be left to the leaders or the Principals; that is, hon. Raila and His Excellency the President. I think it is us who are supposed to do it. I believe that this House will take it as its responsibility. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, ethnicity is highly entrenched in this country. The problem we are having with the 2007 Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) results, for example, has nothing to do with other things but ethnicity. When examiners are examining students, they do not look at the content of the scripts. They instead look at the names of the candidates. An examiner wants to know whether the candidate he or she is examining is a Mr. Kamau, Otieno, ole Kareno or ole Kimutai. This is wrong. We must address this issue. We should develop a document that Kenyans can be identified with, without necessarily having information on tribe, clans and so on, displayed as is currently reflected in our IDs. Those who experienced the violence in Naivasha, for example, will tell you that if we had a document that did not reflect somebody's tribe, people would not have been easily victimised. People's names like Otieno, Biwott and so on would not have been easily read on the IDs. Therefore, this House has a huge task. Since we are all committed, we shall be in a position to come up with serious policy changes in this country. We shall be able to pass Bills that, at the end of the day, the Kenyan population will say:\"We did a good thing by electing hon. Members to the Tenth Parliament. They have done Kenya proud\". Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, the issue of reviewing the Constitution is something that must be done with speed and handled with the seriousness that it deserves. We have issues that must be addressed by the Constitution. We recently passed the Constitution of Kenya (Amendment) Bill, and the National Accord and Reconciliation Bill. For the sake of peace and unity of this country, we had to pass those Bills. We really needed to stay together as brothers and sisters. But had we been given enough time, and if the mood was properly set, and I believe this is the right time to address the constitutional review, some of us would not have voted for it. On how the Prime Minister should be picked, I was very uncomfortable, because we said that the Prime Minister will be the leader of the party that has the majority hon. Members. When we talk of inequality we should not only address this issue in the context of allocation of national resources, but we should address inequality in terms of representation in this House. I represent 95,000 voters. There are other constituencies that have as few as 10,000 or 20,000 voters. If we want to be fair to ourselves it is high time we addressed this issue. We should also review the constituency boundaries in this country. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I want to deliver a message to the principals that the people of Igembe South Constituency are very dependent on the Miraa business. We are very comfortable because the \"Big Three\" in this country, that is His Excellency the President, Mr. Raila and Mr. Musyoka, visited my constituency and told my people that they would recognise Miraa farming when they are elected to power. I am happy because the grand coalition agreement that was signed has brought on board the three leaders. I will be very comfortable to come to this House to ask the three leaders: Can you, please, be in a position to bring to this House a Bill that will recognise Miraa farming? Miraa, in my place, is referred to as \"dream gold\". Miraa is not found in March 20, 2008 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 343 other areas. Unfortunately, this product is castigated by many people because they think it is a drug. People have stood up in this House and tried to classify it as drug. Miraa is not as dangerous as tobacco, which causes cancer. After this House recognises Miraa farming, the Government may end up getting a lot of revenue in form of taxes from the Miraa trade. Miraa farmers in Maua Town do business to the tune of about Kshs30 million everyday. That is the money that changes hands in my town. The Treasury is not able to get money from Miraa farming just because we have not been able to realise this is something that we really make money from."
}