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"speaker_name": "Mr. Konchella",
"speaker_title": "The Minister of State for Immigration and Registration of Persons",
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"legal_name": "Gideon Sitelu Konchella",
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"content": " Thank you, Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, for the opportunity to enable me to contribute to this important Motion. I wish to thank the President for the Speech which he delivered during the State Opening of Parliament. I am told that this is the last Session before we go back to our electors to ask them to vote for us. March 28, 2007 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 225 Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, I will not comment on everything the President said, but just to address a few issues. First, I will comment on the issue of the Women Enterprise Development Fund. We know that women are marginalised in this country. When the President decided that in future women would access credit facilities, it is because they form the basis of the family and the society. By empowering women groups, this country is likely to witness an unprecedented rise in economic growth in the next five years, because the interest rates will go down. Those people who are saying that they have not seen the benefits of the economic growth trickle down to the countryside will see the country grow like any other developed economy. There are a number of things we should note as a House. We will soon be going for meetings to address the issue of minimum reforms. There are minimum reforms that every Kenyan would support because we know they are for the good of our people and the country. There is need for us to discuss and agree, as a House, on what is important. If there is anything for us to agree about the Constitution, let the constitutional reforms or changes be decided by the people of Kenya because it is the only guarantee of their freedom and security. This can only be achieved when they have a Constitution that they have developed and agreed on through a consensus in a referendum. So, if we have to make any amendments in the Constitution in this House, they must be in conformity with the wishes of our people. One such request, which I must point out, is the issue of dual citizenship. Dual citizenship, while I agree with it, and indeed, falls under my Ministry, is something we should be careful about. I know we have many children and families in Europe who send a lot of funds to this country and who would like to come and reside here. All that is welcome. However, once we amend the law, our neighbours from Uganda, Tanzania, Somalia and Ethiopia will also have a right for dual citizenship. They will also demand to enjoy the same rights. If we amend the law with addressing that issue, that will be discriminative. I believe that is not right. This House should come up with a law that addresses the needs of everybody. We should not put ourselves in problems. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, if a criminal commits a crime in this country, yet he or she has dual citizenship of another country like Somalia or Uganda, he will seek refuge in the neighbouring country for a few years and then come back here. We must address that issue. I would like that issue to be addressed by the committee, although I am not a member. This House must also form a committee to decide on who should qualify for dual citizenship. This House should put down conditionalities for dual citizenship. Otherwise, if we have a blanket dual citizenship law, we will be opening a pandora's box in this country. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I would like also to add that the issue of additional constituencies is not a constitutional issue but a Parliamentary matter that must be addressed through a legislation by the Minister concerned by bringing up a Bill for this House to agree. Let us agree on the number of constituencies that we need to create because some of us have been waiting for a long time. We have been running very large constituencies that require additional support from other hon. Members so as to address the problems of our constituents. For example, the people of Embakasi and Trans Mara require additional constituencies. I believe those are the issues which this House should address. It is not a constitutional matter but a legislative matter that this House has the power over. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, the other issue that the President addressed is that of disarmament. Yes, we support the Government in the issue of disarmament. However, those communities which live along the borders--- You know that our neighbouring countries have not disarmed their people. Let us not bring a legislation that will disarm the people of Kenya and leave them to suffer. While I agree entirely with the issue of disarmament within our urban areas because it is causing havoc to our people, we must be very careful on how we disarm our people living along the borders. Those people require security and unless we are able to guarantee them 100 per 226 PARLIAENTARY DEBATES March 28, 2007 cent security, I think we should be very careful, as a House, to ensure that disarmament is not used as a blanket to harass our people. We need to ensure that our people at the borders are protected. There is also the issue of tribalism. Many hon. Members have talked about tribalism. They have alleged that this Government is encouraging tribalism and that employment is being offered on tribal basis. When you look at what has been going in this country for the last few years, I do not need to go into history, even now, there are departments of Governments where certain communities hold all the positions right from the bottom to the top. When we accuse this Government of tribalism, we are not being honest. I am not saying that all is well. There are situations which could be made better. However, I believe the Government has addressed the issue of equity. It has tried to equalise some of the inequalities which had been created by systems which existed and had deliberately been put in place to manipulate the resources of this country. Tribalism was entrenched in the past and not by this Government."
}