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"id": 197957,
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"speaker_name": "Mr. Raila",
"speaker_title": "The Member for Lang'ata",
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"id": 195,
"legal_name": "Raila Amolo Odinga",
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"content": " Mr. Speaker, Sir, I want to begin by congratulating hon. Members, first the old Members, who were in the Ninth Parliament, for making it back and secondly the new Members. I know that campaigns were not easy. My advice to the new Members is that they should learn from the experience of the Ninth Parliament, and know that they are here as servants of the people and not as masters, and that they should read those words very carefully, namely:- \"For the Welfare of Society and the Just Government of Men\" and women these March 12, 2008 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 109 days. First and foremost, the responsibility of hon. Members here is to serve the people. So, hon. Members should think of serving themselves last. Experience has shown that we, as hon. Members, at a time when the country is going through such bad times, need to be very frugal with ourselves. Kenya has been through the worst crisis that it has ever experienced in the 45 years of its existence. We moved to the precipice and we have realised that it is not very far away from where we are. When we looked down the abyss, we were not amused, or pleased, by what we saw. That is the reason why we made a retreat, and came back to the middle. In the last two months, Kenyans have witnessed agony. We have seen people being maimed and brothers hacking each other to death. These are things that nobody would have thought were possible two months ago. For a long time, there were people who said that we are an island of peace in a sea of turmoil, and Kenyans had believed it. But the crisis that we have faced has shown us that for a long time we have believed a lie, that this is a united nation. We are a conglomeration of desperate ethnic groups that have not been fused together into one united nation. This has to be explained in terms of the failure of the political leadership that has ruled this country since Independence. So, Kenyans still owe so much allegiance to their various ethnic communities than to the nation called Kenya. Mr. Speaker, Sir, the late Mwalimu Julius Nyerere was a visionary leader, who managed to forge one united nation out of over 100 different ethnic communities. In Tanzania, people are proud to be Tanzanians. If you go to Tanzania and ask somebody which tribe they are, they will tell you: \"Wewe ni Mkenya. Hapa Tanzania hatuulizwi wewe ni kabila gani\" . They know that Kenyans are the ones who relate to each other as members of this or that ethnic community. We, as leaders, now have a responsibility to create that nation called Kenya. We have seen homes being burnt, churches being torched with people inside, people being burnt like rats in their houses, matatus being stopped and passengers pulled out and asked to show their identity cards and hacked to death, if they are from the \"wrong\" tribe. Therefore, we need to find a lasting solution to this problem. Mr. Speaker, Sir, the previous speaker spoke about tourism. I was at the Coast two weeks ago. I was living in a 400-bed hotel and there were only 20 visitors. In Malindi, before the crisis on 27th December, 2007, there were over 5,000 Italian tourists, but by the time I was there, they were down to seven tourists. Those are minor examples to show that we have a problem. But if you have a problem, then you must solve it. I believe that the problems we have are solvable. That is the reason why we decided that it is necessary to come together as a people. The trigger of the problem that we had here was the elections and what happened on the 30th December last year. It triggered a chain reaction and people took advantage of it to deal with other long-standing issues that have peppered over for a long time. Those issues need to be addressed now. Let us not suffer from the water hog syndrome. The water hog is a very forgetful animal. You hit it here and it runs to another point, forgets and begins to eat normally. That is how the leopard, and those other animals, usually devour it. So, let us not forget what we have done and begin to speak with arrogance like in the past. This is not the time to exhibit arrogance, otherwise we will just go back to where we have come from. Mr. Speaker, Sir, after lengthy negotiations, we agreed that we were going to form a grand coalition. Grand coalitions are formed at times of crises like the one we had here. Right now, there is one such coalition in Germany. There has been one such coalition in Japan, Italy and even France. Grand coalitions are formed when there is a hung Parliament, or when there is a crisis like the one we have just been through. It brings two equal partners together, and the two must treat each other with respect. So, what we have signed means that we are in a grand coalition, and there is no number one, two or three. We are all number one. That is how it is. That is how we should 110 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES March 12, 2008 treat this coalition. That needs to be understood properly, so that we move together as one team. I want us to move together as one team so, that we can get this country out of that situation. Mr. Speaker, Sir, we also need to address the issue of reforms. So, let us use words carefully. Words can build, persuade or create love. But words can also harm, cause pain and agony and even wars. So, let us be civil as we talk to each other. Let us treat each other with respect, so that we can deal with the issue of growth in our country. We have seen how easy it is to destroy it. We can talk of 7 per cent growth, but it could come to zero within a very short time. Let us address the issue of equity in distribution of resources. Let us learn from countries that are multi-ethnic like Malaysia, which has created bench-marks on how to deal with its ethnic diversity, including the minorities. We should have clear quotas when we are distributing natural resources. If you do that, even the El Molo, the smallest community in our country, will have its share. Let us not just look at merit alone. There is merit among all the Kenyan communities. If you are looking for merit you will get a Kisii, a Meru, a Miji Kenda, a Maasai or a Turkana who has merit. So, let us agree that the 42 tribes of this country are here not by permission from any other, but by right and that we are condemned to cohabit together in the geographic space called Kenya. I agree that farmers are suffering. We must find a way of reducing the prices of fertilizers, particularly at this time of planting. We will be addressing the issue of reforms as we move on. Let us work together. With those few remarks, I beg to support."
}