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"id": 197719,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/197719/?format=api",
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"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Mr. Kosgey",
"speaker_title": "The Member for Tinderet",
"speaker": {
"id": 177,
"legal_name": "Henry Kiprono Kosgey",
"slug": "henry-kosgey"
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"content": "Mr. Speaker, Sir, I was saying that we must heal the nation and, on that note, I must thank the principals, His Excellency the President and His Excellency the Prime Minister-designate for taking the lead in signing the Accord. I think it behooves upon all of us to support and put into practice what we often say; that Kenya is bigger than all of us. We must put Kenya first; before anything else. We should have done that on 27th, 28th and 29th December, 2007, before we did what we did at KICC. We do not want to remind anybody about what happened. That is because we want to put it in the past. But let us not forget that, as we continue to build this country, we must uphold democracy. It is on that basis that peace will prevail. It is on that basis that development will occur. Mr. Speaker, Sir, what happened in this country has exposed the underlying issues which we keep on talking about. That is historical injustices, land and so forth. I want to say one thing about land. Kenyans, because of production, rely on land. Of course, we know that land is a limited commodity or quantity. There may not be enough land for every Kenyan. In fact, there is not! But if we create programmes so that people can earn a living from industries and trade--- I usually tell my constituents that Asians of Kenyan origin are engaged in trade and business. They make a living although they do not own any land. We must go that way because land is not sufficient for everybody. We must forget the idea of our society being agrarian so that, at the end of it all, land does not become a big issue. At the moment, it is still a big issue and we must address it. We must address the issues of equity. It was central in our manifesto and, I hope, it will be a central agenda in the Grand Coalition Government. That way, Kenyans can feel that they belong here. There will be no \"two Kenyans\" in our country - the haves and have-nots. Mr. Speaker, Sir, I remember that, long ago, the late hon. Member for Nyandarua North, hon. J.M. Kariuki used to say: \"We do not want to have a Kenya of 10 millionaires and 10 million beggars\". At that time, Kenya had a population of 10 million people. Similarly, we do not want a Kenya with 30 million beggars and, maybe, 30 millionaires. The population of Kenya is about 30 million today. We must create programmes to occupy the youth; programmes that will give them hope. 146 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES March 13, 2008 All of us have come from an election and we had to face them. They are now demanding their rights; they want employment. Some of them have gone to school, but they are not employed. They must feel that they belong to this country. It is up to us to come up with the relevant programmes that will create employment for them. Mr. Speaker, Sir, I want to talk about the agriculture sector in this country. We all know that three-quarters of our population rely on agriculture. As I speak, agriculture is in shambles. The price of fertilizer is now Kshs500 per 50-kilogramme bag. Diesel costs Kshs85 per litre. We do not even know how our farmers will farm. The issue of food security this year will be very critical. So, we must act, and act fast. With those few remarks, I beg to support."
}