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"id": 197701,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/197701/?format=api",
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"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Mr. Kiunjuri",
"speaker_title": "The Member for Laikipia East",
"speaker": {
"id": 175,
"legal_name": "Festus Mwangi Kiunjuri",
"slug": "mwangi-kiunjuri"
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"content": " Thank you, Mr. Speaker, Sir. I also stand to support the Speech by His Excellency the President. I also take this opportunity to thank the people of Laikipia East for having elected me again for the third term to this House. I would also like to take this opportunity to join others in sympathising with the people who have been displaced and those who lost their loved ones for voting us to this House. Having said that, I know that we are here to address very serious issues. Unless we want history to judge us, we must rise to the occasion. We must become serious. We must, for the first time, start looking at each other as Kenyans. We must forget the past through the right way; that is, by not being selfish. Since time immemorial, people in leadership have been so selfish that they only use those who elect them to those positions just as vessels to take them there and then they forget them. If the Ninth Parliament was sensitive enough; if all of us realised that we have a nation to look after; if we sat down at Bomas of Kenya and agreed on the small issues that we differed on, this country would not have witnessed the bloodshed that occurred after the 2007 General Elections. This happened only because we could not agree on a few issues. In fact, when we went round campaigning for the Bomas Draft, we were in agreement that, that document was almost 95 per cent okay, but we could not agree on a few sections. As a result, you can see what has happened to us. This country has become an international and sensational incident. We are being mocked both locally and international because of that incident. The leaders who led us into this situation are still here. We now know our mistakes. It is high time we rose to the occasion. Let us agree that we have made those mistakes and look for a way forward. Mr. Speaker, Sir, I understand that we are about to go for a retreat. It will appear as if we are not sensitive enough if we can take a flight to Mombasa or to any other part of this country to go and board there. For what reason are we boarding? We are supposed to go there and board because already we are in mourning. The people who are making us go and board did not make any mistake by electing us. This Parliament should do whatever it can to make sure that every hon. Member has the opportunity to visit all the areas that were hit by the post-election violence. We should all fly from Nairobi to Kisumu to see what happened there. We should fly to Eldoret, Molo and Burnt Forest to see what happened there. We should fly to the Coast Province to see the destruction that took place there. We will end our tour at the Coast Province, where we shall have no tourists, and then we shall rise to the occasion. We shall come to our senses after understanding the problem. Otherwise, if we go for a retreat anywhere else, we might not understand the problem. First of all, we must understand the problem. We might not realise that there is not a single Luo who is living in Thika or Nyeri until we go there. Once we do that, then we can sit down and enact the right laws. The Ninth Parliament sent over 20 hon. Members to Rwanda to go and see the genocide that took place there. We also sent Members to other countries. I do not see the reason why we cannot send Members to visit the areas which were hit by the post-election violence. Mr. Speaker, Sir, we should set up a special committee to look into the issue of land. By the end of the day, even if we pretend and come here and pass laws, this will not help. Already, we have very beautiful laws. Although we have the Bill of Rights in our Constitution, which spells out the right to live and own property in any part of the country, it has completely been violated. The 140 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES March 13, 2008 law has been broken, not once or twice. Over the years, we have broken the law. Even if we invite experts from Australia, America and everywhere else, they will not give us a better Bill of Rights than the one we have broken. So, before we touch on these laws, we must set up a special committee to solve our problems. Yesterday, Maj-Gen. Nkaisserry said clearly here that some communities are fighting for land which does not belong to them. We want to look at these historical injustices, not only in 1992 or as stated in the Ndung'u Report, but all of them. The first thing that we should throw into the pit latrine is the Ndung'u Report. If that is what will make Kenyans kill each other, then we should do away with it. Let us call the colonial masters who are responsible for this mess. It is because of the scramble and the subsequent partitioning of Africa, and Kenya in particular, that, today, Kenyans are suffering. That is why today we are being faced by the land question. I am a historian and I know what happened. We should not pretend that we are sorting out land issues here when we are fighting over a one acre piece of land somewhere in Eldoret or in Nyeri, that is owned by So-and-So, while we forget that the people who have taken over our land are living comfortably. They send their people here to come and see how we are brutally killing each other. I wonder why we should fight with the Maasais or the Turkanas in Laikipia while 68 per cent of the land in Laikipia is owned by a few white farmers. I have not heard about anybody who has attacked the white farmers. I do not see the reason why people are fighting in Kericho because a Kisii owns three acres of land there, while there are large tea estates there which are owned by the whites. We should be ashamed of ourselves that we are killing each other because of one acre piece of land. We do not even ask ourselves what the root cause of this problem is. Mr. Speaker, Sir, if we are going to address the issue of land in this country, a special committee must be set up where the British must be represented. This Parliament must pass a law here and make sure that the British come here and tell us what happened; Ni kitu gani iliuma ilenyingine? We must realise that if there is compensation to be made, then we should settle this matter once and for all. Otherwise, this matter will not be addressed just by changing the Constitution. Mr. Speaker, Sir, the issue of security is of paramount importance. Already, we are losing control. The police is not in control and the leaders are not in control. Everywhere in this country, people have their own militia groups. Those who have not trained their own groups, are contemplating doing so. This is a threat to the society. Mafia came in and it is now an institution that is recognised all over. They can do whatever they want. If we do not move fast, through the relevant amendment to the Constitution, to ensure that there is security in our country, very soon, the security of this country will be taken over by those militia groups. Already, they have taken over certain parts of the country and most people are paying protection fees.Those who are constructing houses also pay protection fees. Those who are living in the Rift Valley and all over this country are paying some protection fees. We should not just talk of the Mungiki . The militia groups have their own structures now. Those who thought that they had achieved anything by paying the militias Kshs1,000 to fight, they went to fight and by the time they came back home, they had Kshs100,000 in their pockets. They do not require our Kshs1,000 now. It is now a way of earning a living. They have established a channel. We gave then the rod to go and fish, now they know how to fish and they do not require the rod again. This is a monster with open jaws and it will swallow the order of security in this country. We should either move fast or we give out this country to those militia groups. This issue affects all of us. By the end of the day, they will sort out the tribal issues and they will come to us. We have classes in the society and we cannot pretend that they are not there. We must move very fast to contain this issue before it gets out of hand. March 13, 2008 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 141 Lastly, I look at the intention of amending Section 15 of the Constitution as mischief. It is okay and I will support it, but we have not said anything regarding the amendment of Section 47(A). If we are serious that we want to review the Constitution in the next one year, we must bring the amendments to that section. I will be approaching the Minister for Justice and Constitutional Affairs and the Attorney-General to make sure that, in the next two weeks, they bring a Bill to the House which will lead to the amendment of Section 47(A), so that Kenyans can know that we are really serious. We should not be selfish. The arrangement that is coming here is the distribution of power. To whom are we distributing power? Yes, this is the healing process, but we will be very selfish. We must amend Section 47(A) of the Constitution. If the Minister for Justice and Constitutional Affairs and the Attorney-General are not willing to do so, as an hon. Member, I also have the right to introduce that Bill. I do not want to do that. They should introduce that Bill so that Section 47(A) can be amended. With those few remarks, I support the Motion."
}