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"id": 197245,
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"speaker_name": "Mr. ole Lankas",
"speaker_title": "The Member for Narok South",
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"legal_name": "Lankas ole Nkoidila",
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"content": " Thank you, Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, for giving me the opportunity to contribute to this Motion. I will start with self-introduction. I am Mr. ole Lankas, the Member for Narok South. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I want to join the rest of my colleagues in supporting the Motion. I believe that the Presidential Speech was reconciliatory. It is also guiding in terms of policy formulation. It has also given us a basis on which to build the foundation of all that we are talking about in this House. So, I entirely support the Presidential Speech to this House. We have been talking about various issues, reconciliation, peace and unity for this country. I am one of those who support reconciliation. I support the peace building and healing process that we are going through. However, there are things that we must say. We are talking about reconciliation and healing of the country, but it is not good when hon. Members stand here and make utterances which make some of us look back and wonder whether we are really being honest March 19, 2008 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 247 or sincere when we talk of peace in this House. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, what comes to mind is the kind of utterances that we have heard from some of our colleagues. Unfortunately, some of them are not in this House now. Some of the actions portrayed in this House, even by very senior colleagues, some of whom are Government Ministers, are retrogressive. We are saying we are healing the country, but they are still going back, holding the tail of the ghosts of ethnic clashes. Is it fair? We are saying, what happened has happened. We have witnessed human suffering. People have been killed. Some people have been maimed and property destroyed. There is no small or big pain. Pain is pain. People have been killed in Eldoret; I have to mention this. People have been killed in Naivasha. So, there is no small pain and big pain. We all felt the pain. Every leader in this House, I believe, must have felt the pain. So, the issue of isolating people or cases, will not do us any good. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, we have read in the Press that there will be prosecution. We have heard some hon. Members of this House say that some leaders should not be in the Cabinet. I do not know whether they have already made a judgement. Are we serious when we talk about peace? How can we have peace when there is fear somewhere? Can we rise above this, hon. Members? We need peace. That is when we can have peace. We cannot talk about peace while behind the scenes, other things are happening. It cannot happen. So, I stand here to say that there is still an element of fear. If we are ready for reconciliation, unless words have lost meaning, we should settle for it. When we talk of reconciliation, is there a level of reconciliation we can go to and then continue with other things or do we talk of total reconciliation? When we say that we are healing the country, what are we healing it from? We were told that the police are \"going on with investigations\", if I may quote the words of the Attorney-General when he spoke here the other day, and yet they are the prime suspects. How can they investigate themselves? How much independent are they? Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, we cannot isolate other people. When you sit here and listen to some people talk, you get the impression that there is already a determined effort to take some action, which is not coming out very clearly in this House. I also want to mention the issue of re-settlement of the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs). I want to imagine that IDPs are a result of the post-election violence. However, there are people who have been misplaced, and are still being misplaced. I want to come up with the terminology \"Internally Misplaced Persons (IMPs)\" to refer to people who are living - where they are living - thinking that they are in the right place, and yet they are not. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, knowingly or unknowingly, some people think that they are in the right places, but they are not. The issue of settlement of people in the Mau Forest is a case in point. This is a problem I have inherited in my constituency. The problem has continued throughout the last two regimes, but no solution has been found. Innocent people were cheated into buying forest land and then, at some point, they were evicted. At some other point, they were allowed to go back to the forest. The most interesting part of the problem is that the issue was even used as a campaign tool in the last general election. People were flown there in choppers, where they told people on the ground to stop any eviction. In fact, one of the District Commissioners in that area became a casualty as he tried to do the right thing. He was telling people not to move to the catchment areas. In doing so, he was transferred. People on the ground were, again, told to stop the eviction. So, the problem is now back with us. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, Mau Forest is a catchment area. Everybody knows how important it is not only to Kenya, but also to countries beyond our borders. Innocent people are living there. The forest is being degraded every day. Trees are being cut every day. We now have a crisis. In 248 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES March 19, 2008 fact, as I speak, I have a problem. Members of Parliament from the areas where those people moved to buy land in the Mau Forest are still following up the matter to ensure that the welfare of their people is taken care of. So, we have a crisis. There is a crisis as a result of corruption. Those who sold the forest land are known, yet no action has been taken by the Government. Money was taken from the people and they cannot access the land they bought. I am standing on the Floor of this honourable House to address the issue of the Mau catchment area. We cannot allow the degradation of that catchment area. We must protect the Mau Forest. This is an issue of misplaced people through no fault of their own. They just found themselves in a crisis. Those are some of the issues that I needed to bring forth. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, the issue of tourism is very crucial for this country. The Maasai Mara Game Reserve is one entity that you cannot avoid when you talk about tourism. Sometime last year, the Maasai Mara was recognised internationally as the 7th Wonder of the World. But what has the Government done to enhance that recognition? You cannot access the Maasai Mara now. The roads leading to the Maasai Mara are impassable. In fact, I was shocked to hear one of my colleagues, the hon. Member for Malindi, talking of the Government's concentration in the Maasai Mara. It is not there; we need to do a little bit more. Maasai Mara is being threatened by grabbers, and that is a known fact. What has the Government done to protect that entity, which is doing a lot for this country? Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, the other issue which I wanted to mention is the issue of education. For all these years, there have been regions in this country which have never performed well in examinations. There are districts which have been condemned to be the last ten districts always for over 20 years. With those few remarks, I support."
}