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"speaker_name": "Mr. Muite",
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"content": "Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, they go there to discuss things that are esoteric and that have no practical meaning and which do not change the day to day lives of the African people. We can look even at the region; the East African Legislative Assembly (EALA). We should begin from the bottom and not from the top. This approach of top-to-bottom will not work. We have to come up with strategies that are going to enable us to begin from the bottom so that the people at the grassroots actually benefit. We must open up our boundaries. Even in this region, we must allow a woman from Kenya to go to Gikomba Market and buy second-hand clothes if she has discovered that there is market in Uganda, Rwanda, Tanzania, Zambia or the other places. She should buy those second-hand clothes, put them in a lorry and go without hinderance. She should go and sell them in Kampala, Entebbe and the other places and come back with a lorry full of bananas. We must open up those boundaries to the ordinary people. If we can have economic co-operation, political co-operation will follow as a matter, of course. However, we cannot start with the political co-operation when the ordinary people do not see any economic benefit. We must open up the region and the continent to the free movement of goods, services, people and labour. It may be possible that people in the neighbouring countries do not like the job of sweeping the streets. You will find a country, like Kenya, where there are many people who do not mind sweeping the streets. Let them freely go and sell their labour in any country on the African continent. There should be free movement of labour, goods and services. Economic co-operation and collaboration is the key to political collaboration and union. These are not fresh ideas. They are ideas that were first discussed by the late Dr. Kwame Nkrumah. The challenge is how to bring that about. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, have you recently tried to go through the border crossing point in Taita Taveta? You will find a queue of lorries that spend days there before they can get cleared to go across to Tanzania or to come back. It is the same story in Malaba. If you want to travel to any country in Africa, it is easier for you, as an African, to travel to Europe, either to Paris and then travel down to an African country. What I am saying is that if we are going to realise this dream, which I support wholly; 100 per cent, let us be realistic. Let us take a reality check and start from the bottom. Mr. Speaker, Sir, let us make this collaboration and union meaningful to the people. Let them be able to move freely. Let them be able to sell their services and goods freely. In other words, we can have this concept at the top because we must have a structured approach but, much more emphasis must be given to the strategies of getting to the grassroots and making this thing June 12, 2007 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 1715 work from there. If it works from the grassroots, it will work upwards and the political union will follow. If we do not do it that way, in my view, we will continue to discuss dreams which we are not going to realise any time soon. We must, of course, have a structured approach. Strength is in numbers. If we have a structured approach, as the continent of Africa, even different regions--- Today, the United States of America is able to dictate to the whole world. We are being told that we must enact the Anti- Terrorism Bill. Of course, they have the numbers and the wealth. They are able to dictate to the rest of the world. If we come together, we will be able to stand up to the right wing policies of the Bush Administration, which is making the world unsafe for all of us. No one can support terrorism. No one wants innocent people to be killed. However, we must examine whether, indeed, the world is becoming safer or more unsafe because of those right-wing policies being pursued by the Bush Administration. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I would like to take this opportunity to truly send condolences to the innocent people who were injured and another one who lost his life in the bomb blast yesterday. When something like that happens, let us not try to talk about it as a small explosion. There is no such thing as a \"small explosion\". An explosion that is throwing people up into the sky is not a small explosion. We hope that when we have the Pan African Parliament working effectively, those are the sort of issues that the PAP will take up. When violence, like a bomb blast where innocent people are being injured and killed, happens in Kenya, it must be an issue of concern to the whole of the continent. It should not just be a concern to Kenya, as a country. So, I am supporting this Motion because it will give us muscle, as a continent, to take a common position on the best way to combat terrorism and stand up---"
}