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"id": 197253,
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"speaker_name": "Mr. E. Mohamed",
"speaker_title": "The Member for Wajir East",
"speaker": {
"id": 82,
"legal_name": "Mohamed Ibrahim Elmi",
"slug": "mohamed-elmi"
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"content": " Thank you, Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir. My names are Mr. Mohamed Elmi. I represent Wajir East Constituency. First and foremost, I would like to thank my constituents for electing me to this Tenth Parliament. I would also like to thank the many Kenyans who worked for peace at a moment when we thought we were going to lose our country. I do also thank our neighbours, Africa, Europe and the United States of America that came to help us. It is the goodwill of Kenyans that helped us. That is why people have come to our aid when we needed them. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I would like to actually propose that all the Members of Parliament should sign either a card or a pledge to say thank you to His Excellency, Dr. Kofi Annan. This should be done, so that the world knows that we appreciate that we came back from a very bad place. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I would also like to send my sympathies to all the people who were affected by the post-election violence. We all know what happened and they were debated here. I will not bore you with what happened. I think some people who were affected are in IDP camps, while others lost all their livelihood. Even some people who were very far away from where the action took place lost their livelihood. Even some children died. As we speak, there is a major drought brewing in the northern part of this country, but because of what happened during the post-election violence, it is has not been given much attention. So, I want to send my sympathies to all Kenyans who were affected during the post-election violence. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, a lot has been said about what happened. I want to point out a few things, which I think have not been mentioned yet. I think there was a collective leadership failure in what happened. The signs were there but they were not read by the leadership from the top to leaders in various institutions in this country. The Kenya National Human Rights Commission was very clear. They produced reports in which they mentioned a number of the things that have afflicted us and led to what happened. But we did not listen to them. They mentioned the ugly ethnicity that was coming about. They also mentioned the impunity. Mr. Maina Kiai repeated the word \"impunity\" so many times but nobody actually listened to him. I wish we had listened to him, maybe some of the people who died could not have died. There was also the 2005 Constitutional Referendum. I think everybody should have seen and somebody somewhere should have acted. There was also the inequality report that was widely publicised. We are all busy talking about it, but we did not heed its advice. there was also the Africa Peer Review Mechanism (APRM) and the eminent persons who came here. They said we were managing a lot of things well but we have not managed our ethnic differences well. Why do I mention these particular things? I am sure there are many others. I am mentioning these because as the Tenth Parliament, it is upon us to watch these signs so that it never happens again. We should be watching for signs that are going to take our country back and say no. We should listen to the lone voices that most of the time 258 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES March 19, 2008 people think they are mad. When they turn up, they repeat that certain things are not right. But people think, because it does not affect them, it is okay. I think the word \"inequality\" has been repeated a lot. But when I hear people use it, they use it as if it is only for certain regions or ethnic groups. I think there is inequality within regions, ethnic groups and every social strata of our society. We must do something serious about it. This is the opportunity to actually face it squarely. When we talk about inequality where I come from, people laugh when they hear other people talk about being marginalised. This is because if you look at the inequality report, you will see that everything is either seven times, ten times national average to the worst. If we talk about the free primary education, who does it serve? We created a \"Ministry of Schools\" and not a Ministry of Education. 60 per cent of residents in my constutency are pastorlists who are mobile. But according to that Ministry those children who move with their families are not their children. This is because they do not cater for them. The Ministry built schools and then asked the parents to send their children there. They built schools without providing teachers and then people say that we have one country. We cannot have one country until the issue of inequality is addressed. I come from a constituency where the town is probably the only place people use bucket latrines. For how many years have we been Independent? When we have general elections, every President goes there and promises to establish a sewerage facility for the town. I come from a whole province with no road to talk about. There is only a bit of tarmac in Garissa Town in the whole province, but the whole province has none. Of course, in every election year we are promised a road to Mandera and Moyale. So, while I support the Presidential Address, it was short on Arid and Semi-Arid Lands (ASALs). In the last Parliament, there were a lot of great things said, but the policy that was developed still lies in cabinets six years later. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, there is no mention of corruption. I thought that corruption was a big thing in Kenya. It was not given the place it deserves. I feel that, that is an area we should not forget as we make a new constitution. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, as we go forward and take Kenyans to the next height--- I believe this is the moment when we can visit all our institutions. We make a constitution for prosperity and not for individual regions, or one part of this country or another. It is time for all Kenyans to come together, and no part should be forgotten. We should work very hard. I am, therefore, saying the rules of Parliament should be changed, so that we work for more days, pass more Bills, so that we truly earn what we are given. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I would also like to say that political parties are going to become very important once we adopt the Parliamentary system. Therefore, we should invest in political parties. We could learn from Somalialand. They have restricted political parties to only three. In this way they \"demolished\" the ethnic divisions that they had. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, we must come up with a programme as we think about reconstruction and everything that will socially re-engineer our society, so that ethnicity becomes a thing of the past. And I mean negative ethnicity. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, finally I want to invite hon. Members to this wonderful one Kenya. This is one Kenya where every hon. Member of this House will visit the northern part of this country and other parts. They will know what each hon. Member is facing in his or her constituency. They will know what other Kenyans go through, so that when we talk about inequality, we will be discussing in a more meaningful way. We will learn about each other's culture, and stop despising them, but instead start appreciating each other. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, this is a moment for Kenya's development. Kenya can take off for good. I would like to say that there are no parts of this country where people are not industrious. Where I come from, if it were not for the people's resilience and survival abilities, they would not even be alive. Therefore, we must invest in those places. If only we were given a road to Mandera, March 19, 2008 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 259 you would not be saying that ours areas are marginalised. So, the new Kenya I am going to invite you to will have a programme in which we will travel together. In an interval of a minimum of three months somebody should go to another constituency, so that we see the differences in this country in order to build on our strengths and not failures. Thank you Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir."
}