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"id": 204281,
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"speaker_name": "Mr. Wetangula",
"speaker_title": "The Assistant Minister for Foreign Affairs",
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"legal_name": "Moses Masika Wetangula",
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"content": " Thank you, Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, for giving me this opportunity. I listened very carefully to Mr. Ojode moving the Motion. If you have read the African Peer Review Mechanism Report on Kenya and especially the Peer Review Committee chaired by Mrs. Graca Machel, currently Mrs. Mandela, one of the areas that Kenya scored poorly is the management of our ethnic diversity. That was singled out by her. She recommended that a better way of managing our ethnic diversity be looked at. Even sitting here, you can see ethnic chauvinism at play on the Floor of this House. You can see that we are all pursuing arguments that are skewed in ethnic directions. That is not the Kenya we want to have. This Motion is founded on a belief by Mr. Ojode that by setting up a committee, we can correct the problem; I think not. If you look at Standing Order No.151 which sets up Departmental Committees of this House, it gives them mandate to investigate, inquire and interrogate Government departments on all issues within their mandate. The relevant committees to the Ministry of Labour and Human Resources Development or the Office of the President, do not even need any mandate from this House to do so. Their mandate is in the Standing Orders. They can summon any Minister or PS and interrogate them on the levels of recruitment they have. We do not need a select committee. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I have said this before; that it is a terrible indictment on this Parliament. We spend too much time seeking to travel abroad rather than working to enhance the welfare of Kenyans. If these committees were working, Mr. Ojode would never have brought this Motion. Perhaps, he would have taken his dossier to the Committee to enrich their knowledge and help them reach a fair judgement on the matters of the State. I want to urge that we speak on the Floor of this House on matters that enhance our national unity and not on those that enhance our national disintegration in terms of ethnicity. We, as leaders, if we continue looking at ourselves in terms of our ethnic backgrounds, associations and feelings, this country will not achieve the Vision 2030 that we are talking about. Malaysia has developed to where it is with a lot of ethnic groups, but they do not highlight them. India is booming without any Indian leaders standing up to say: \"You are Punjabi, Maharajah.\" Those things do not help the country. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, Ministers in this Government have also not behaved very well. You will find that when certain Ministers make appointments, they are skewed only in favour of their ethnic groups. This is not limited to Ministers from Mt. Kenya only, contrary to what Mr. Ojode is saying. You will see that when a Minister is from Nyanza Province the appointments come from Nyanza Province. When a Minister is from Coast, the appointments come from Coast Province. When a Minister is from Central Province, the appointments come from Central Province. This is not the way to manage our country. I think that everybody has to wake up today and look at this country as a unitary State for the common good of this country. It should be a State where an El Molo and a Kikuyu have a role or duty to play in the development of the country. A Luhya and a Somali should have a role to play in the development of this country, so that we can build a cohesive, progressive State. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, this Motion highlights rather than seeks to reduce ethnic tensions in this country. I want to urge Mr. Ojode, who was a very competent assistant of September 12, 2007 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 3847 mine until he opted out of the Government that as well-intentioned as the Motion may be, it does not help us to achieve cohesion. With those few remarks, I beg to oppose the Motion."
}