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"id": 197338,
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"speaker_name": "Mr. Kinyanjui",
"speaker_title": "The Member for Nakuru Town",
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"id": 48,
"legal_name": "Lee Maiyani Kinyanjui",
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"content": " Thank you, Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, for giving me this opportunity to address the House. I would like to start by congratulating my colleagues for having won one of the most hotly contested elections to be in this Tenth House. I am Lee Kinyanjui and I represent Nakuru Town in the Rift Valley. I would also like to take this opportunity to thank the great people of Nakuru for giving me this opportunity to represent them in this Tenth Parliament. It was my first time to vie in a general election and I must say that I was really delighted by the confidence that they have in me. Having say that, I would also like to mention that my town was greatly affected by the recent clashes and, in fact, it acted as the first stop-over for the people who were affected from Northern Rift and Nyanza region. As a result of that, my town has been overstretched. We still have over 20,000 Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) who are currently within the town. My big lesson after what we have gone through over the last few weeks is that, as a nation, we need to seriously re-consider our position with regard to the way we perceive ourselves. I have had the opportunity to be in seminars where they are trying to look at the issue of tribalism. We have also tried to look at the word \"tribe\" and its special reference to Africa. We have many communities and people who do not speak the same language, even outside Africa. We have the example of Europe. We never sit to ask them what tribe they are. There is a certain connotation that is attributed to the word \"tribe\"! Essentially, what it means is: \"A group of people who are savage in nature\". So, essentially, when you talk about being \"42 tribes\", you are referring to a group of 42 savages. If you look at the manner in which we saw things work out, especially over the last two months, sometimes, I am not so sure that I would doubt that description. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I would also like to remind my fellow Kenyans that we have had great moments when we have thought as a nation. 300 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES March 19, 2008 Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I am reminded of the times when we had athletics such as Paul Tergat. He has been the pride of this country. Many times when he won medals in all the races he has participated in, we hardly ask ourselves which community he comes from. We had Mr. Dennis Oliech in soccer, our Noble Laureate Prize Winner, Prof. Wangari Maathai, and many others. We do not mind where they come from. It is only that when sometimes negative things happen, we want to attribute them to certain ethnic groups. This really takes us back. So, it is important that we define where we are coming from. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, as a nation in our 44th year of Independence, it is important to remember that any adult around that age goes through a very critical phase in life called middle age life crisis. At that age, one tries to define where he is coming from; where he is going; what he believes in; and starts realising that certain ambitions are not possible. How you resolve that crisis becomes an important milestone in your future development. So, I hope that this country will be able to resolve the current issues. I also believe that the two Bills we passed yesterday will go a long way in ensuring that is done. However, it is important to note that even with the enactment of those two Bills, it would still remain to be seen what will happen if we do not enact the same Bills in our heart. If there is no sincerity in pursuing some of the issues that we have highlighted, in working in partnerships, we may not go very far. I am impressed by the commitment and the team work that we have seen in the recent weeks that brought about the Bills. I am sure, we will carry on with the agenda. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, going back to the issue of the clashes - I would like to mention this because it is an important development - we, seriously, need to look at how we can engage our youth. A lot of activities and mayhem that we saw was basically perpetrated by young people. This is because our young people have lost hope in life. Many of them completed their secondary school education and others are graduates, but they have nothing to do. The worst we can do is to deal with somebody who has lost hope in life. We need to instill hope in our youth. We need to show them that there is life even when things are not working. We should also go an extra mile of ensuring that we create new job opportunities for them. There has been a lot of suggestions on how we can create job opportunities in this country. One of the recent suggestions is by way of business prospect out-sourcing. We have seen a lot of companies, especially in Europe and the United States of America, where labour is expensive, resulting to out-sourcing certain services like customer service from countries like India and Indonesia. Our labour is even cheaper than that in those countries. If we do so, we will, definitely, go a long way in trying to reduce unemployment in this country. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, in his Address to this House, the President also said we will be building markets and stalls. This will help a long way in trying to house or take care of young people who find themselves idle. In the area of tourism, we were able to achieve the highest numbers in the year 2006, which stood at over one million tourists. With the passage of the Tourism Bill, a lot of the issues that have remained grey will be sorted out. Tourism happens to be one of the easiest ways in which we can revamp our economy. It is said that for every five tourists we get, we are able to create one more job opportunity. So, we should be able to increase the numbers. This can be done in the short-term, because, unlike agriculture and other industries which require long-term investments, we only need to manage our image outside by presenting Kenya as a favourite destination, especially on the African scene. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, it is important to note that a city like Dubai, which is currently one of the fastest growing cities in the world, attracts more tourists than us. In fact, it attracts about ten times the number of tourists that we get. But if you look at what would attract a March 19, 2008 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 301 tourist to a place like Dubai, where the temperatures are so high, is difficult to see. We have favourable weather and wildlife. Basically, we have all that it takes to bring tourists here. It just requires us to manage our image. It would go a long way in terms of increasing employment opportunities in this country. There is also the issue of re-settlement. As I said, there are lots of people who are still in the camps. As the rains set in, it is going to be very chaotic in those camps. Most IDPs live in tents. It will become very difficult, especially for women and children when it rains. We have seen a lot of them get infections during the rainy season. So, we hope that re-settlement will be done speedily, so that we take care of that situation. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, it is also important to note that most of those people are small-scale farmers from the most productive parts of this country. So, the longer they stay in the Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camps, the greater the possibility of a famine towards the end of the year. So, I would ask for a speedy re-settlement, so that we overcome the issue of food security. Another issue I would like to mention has to do with land. We have mentioned that a lot of the things that we saw have to do with land. I am happy that we will address this issue once and for all when the constitutional review process is brought to the Floor of this House. Sometimes, until things are so bad, you do not get the time to see where you ought to go. I would like to quote Dr. Martin Luther King, when he said: \"Only when it is dark can we see the stars.\" Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, we had gotten to the darkest part of our nation and nationhood. It is the only time that we can see how far we had gone. So, we need to do a lot on the land issue. There are a lot of land questions that have remained unanswered for many years, including the Mount Elgon and Likia issues. But as long as they did not affect the rest of the country, there was no urgency in resolving them. It is important that we resolve some of these issues before they get out of hand. There was also mention of some of the cash crops and the possible legislation of laws to govern the way they should be run. We talk about most of the cash crops. However, in my area, we grow pyrethrum. It has been one of the biggest employers for that whole region for many years. In 2002, the Pyrethrum Board of Kenya had about 1,200 employees. Today, it barely has 400 employees and we are not even able to pay them their salaries. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, it is important for the Government to look at this sector. We produce about 80 per cent of the world's pyrethrum and yet, we are not able to pay for our pyrethrum, despite the fact that the market is there. The trend in Europe and most of the western countries, is to go toward natural pyrethrin. So, we have a great demand for our product. However, the problem is that our institution has partly been seen as more of a political entity. The turn over even in terms of management has greatly affected our perception in the international market. I would support the Pyrethrum Act that seeks to separate the production aspect of the board from the regulatory aspect. I will be looking forward to seeing this Bill. It has been long-overdue. I hope that it will come and solve some of the issues to help our people. I would also like to mention that most of the people from that region are also displaced. Thank you, Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir."
}