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"id": 197249,
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"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Ms. Noor",
"speaker_title": "Nominated Member",
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"legal_name": "Sophia Abdi Noor",
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"content": " Thank you, Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, for giving me this time. My names are Ms. Sophia Abdi Noor, Nominated Member of Parliament, ODM. I wish to take this chance to thank my political party leadership for nominating me to this House. I feel very humbled and honoured. I want to sincerely and in a very special way say \"Thank you very much.\" Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I want also to congratulate you for being elected the Deputy Speaker of this House. I wish also to appreciate the efforts of the two Principals. I really want to say that they displayed a leadership that this country really needed at this moment in time. It is a leadership that we, really, expected them to show at this critical moment. I would like to say that we are proud of these two sons of this country. I must also say: Congratulations to them! Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I wish also to salute this House for the history it made yesterday; the unity it showed and the leadership it portrayed. That is what is expected from us, as leaders, to unite this country. I must say: Thank you very much for that leadership that we have taken as a group. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I wish also to commend the President for the focused Speech. Noted with a lot of interest is the establishment of the Truth, Justice and Reconciliation Committee. That interest is informed by my background, where I come from. It is informed because of the historical injustices that my community and myself, as an individual, have gone through. You will agree with me that we have gone through a systematic marginalisation in this country. It is only the region that I come from that has gone through the emergency law. It was just lifted in 1997. It had been there since the emergency time! There have been Government-initiated massacres in my region where, uniformed and armed personnel who are supposed to protect our lives killed some people in that region, robbed and looted their property, raped women and torched houses. That is what has really devolved my interest in this particular Commission. I urge those people who will be mandated to implement that particular Commission to stand above petty politics; to be people who will have, really, taken this country in the right direction. They should bring the truth and address the critical issues that have divided this country. This country has been divided very badly! It is because of those who have caused the post-election violence that we have seen. It is also because of the injustices, resource allocation, discrimination and--- A colleague contributed and said that we should forget about marginalisation. I believe that we cannot forget about the marginalization. We can only forget about marginalization when this particular Commission really does its work properly. That is the only time we will forget marginalisation. We will delete it from our vocabulary in this country. But as long as that Commission will not rise up to the occasion and face the challenges head on, I do not think we are March 19, 2008 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 251 going to do the right thing for this country. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I wish also to contribute on the free primary education. The free primary education is a noble programme. It is an incident-based policy that is in existence. It is a policy that is working. It is also a policy that has freely promoted the enrolment of pupils in schools in particular regions. But I have my own reservation. My reservation is that the policy has not addressed the critical gaps that exist in the education sector. There are children, as I speak, who are still learning under trees. Children from pastoral communities, children who learn under trees, children who go without water and other facilities are required to compete with those who are in schools in Nairobi. Those schools have all the facilities, including buses, computers, laboratories and everything. They are put at par. They are given the same amount of money. I urge this House and the Ministry of Education to look into that particular policy. That is because it is not addressing the critical gaps, imbalances and inequalities that are existing in this country. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I also wish to talk about the poverty alleviation programmes. We have good documents on the poverty alleviation programmes, which are not implemented. Most of these documents are shelved. We have, for example, the Poverty Reduction Commission (PRC), which has a very good human resource. This group of people have gone round this country. They have carried out a need assessment all over the country. They have done what is required, as a Commission. But this Commission is toothless. They do not have the resources to implement what they have seen on the ground. This includes dealing with the problems they have seen using the information that they have. They have a good data bank. I was a member of that particular Commission. I know how I was frustrated when I went all over this country to see the kind of problems that exist. Let us be honest to one another. Let us give those groups of people and individuals, whom we have assigned some duties in this country, a chance to implement their programmes. I am sure they will implement wonderful programmes. Let us not be mean and keep everything to ourselves. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, on the same note, there is also the Gender Commission, which was established in this country. The Commission has the human resource that is required, but they do not have the resources to run effectively. When we talk about gender, people think this concerns women affairs. The issue of gender does not concern women affairs only. It concerns issues that affect all of us across the board. We want to give those who are not in the leadership positions the opportunity and space to gain them. Tomorrow, the majority might be affected. Therefore, I am pleading with this House, at this time when we are making history, please, because you never know that tomorrow you will be the people who will be affected, do something today so that tomorrow, when you will be the people who will say \"We, men are marginalised.\", you can use the policy you develop today. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I want to conclude by touching on the issue of livestock. The livestock industry is key in this country. It is an industry that has been neglected. This industry has not been given the necessary attention that it deserves. If you look at a country like Botswana, you can imagine the kind of income they are making from the livestock industry. They are making more money than we are making from the tourism industry. I am asking this House to really empower the livestock industry, just the way we are empowering the coffee and tea industries. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, with those few remarks, I beg to support the Motion."
}