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"id": 234848,
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"speaker_name": "Mr. Ethuro",
"speaker_title": "The Assistant Minister for Planning and National Development",
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"id": 158,
"legal_name": "Ekwee David Ethuro",
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"content": " Thank November 14, 1006 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 3639 you, Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, for giving me the opportunity to support this Bill. I want to start by thanking the Minister for bringing the Bill to this House. This Bill has been pending for a very long time. Kenya registered the first cases of refugees in the early 1980s but we are talking about the refugee law about 25 years later. Our neighbours, Tanzania and Uganda included, already have the refugee law in their statute books. That is why I commend the Minister. Kenya is supposed to be a leader in this region, and leadership demands that we lead from the front on all issues and at all times. As a country, we need to remain on the competitive edge. We should be expanding the frontiers of leadership, and not playing catch-up. So, Mr. Minister, thank you very much! Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I also want to thank the Members of the relevant Departmental Committee because, when this Bill came to the House, they thought it wise to call all of us who have borne the brunt of hosting refugees in our regions, to give fast-hand knowledge on what it means to co-exist with refugees. So, as I rose to support this Bill, I did so knowing that it has taken into consideration the interests of the local communities. The UN, through the UNHCR, is rightly committed to the protection of refugees. Our own administration tends to assume that refugees should be protected at the expense of the protection of Kenyans. That is where the conflict arises. We have undertaken the refugee identification exercise, which is an extremely important step forward. We need to know who is a refugee and who is not a refugee. The police have made it a habit to abuse the travel documents given to refugees by extorting money from them. As a nation, if we really want to support refugees, we should do so properly. There is no doubt about that in my mind. Let us give them proper hospitality. Let us accommodate them and let them travel when we have allowed them to do so. The police should not extend their corrupt practices to refugees. Doing so will portray them as being in a state of desperation. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, as a country, we need to ask ourselves where we have the so-called designated refugee camps. Designated refugee camps in this country happen to be in Dadaab, in the North Eastern Province, and Kakuma in Turkana District. Those are areas with a fragile ecosystem. They are areas which are inhabited by pastoralists and which are usually afflicted by drought and famine. A good Government will not keep refugees in Central Province. There were attempts to keep refugees in Coast Province and elsewhere but they could not stay there for long. The impact of refugees on the host communities is enormous. I am happy that this Bill recognises the fact that our support for refugees should not be at the expense of the host communities, in terms of the economic impact and environmental sustainability of those areas. You can imagine the long-term environmental impact of a dry land, or an ASAL area, like Dadaab in North Eastern Province and Kakuma in Turkana District, producing sufficient firewood to enable all the refugees in those areas to make their meals. To make matters worse, there is no complimentary programme of planting trees to replace those being harvested. The Bill has made it obligatory to the implementing organizations and Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs), like the Lutheran World Federation, World Vision and others that they have to make sure that they plant enough trees in these areas. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, conflicts are always around resources, and particularly natural resources. Delegates from all over the world are in Nairobi debating about climate change. Yesterday, in Lodwar, we were fortunate to have the visiting Minister for Environment from the UK. He asked our people whether they have experienced the impacts of global warming. We are on the receiving end of environmental destruction. It is important that the legal framework acknowledges that when you have extracted a natural resource from a particular place, you must be under obligation to fill up that place. 3640 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES November 14, 2006 Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, we are also lucky that our own hon. Member, Prof. Maathai, the Nobel Laureate, launched the one billion Tree Planting Programme just the other day in this country. I want to appreciate the work done by Prof. Maathai and to acknowledge her for the umpteenth time for the recognition of her efforts by the world by getting the Nobel prize. But I would also want her to go ahead and actually plant part of the one billion trees in places like Turkana and Dadaab where, courtesy of the refugee population, our trees have disappeared. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, the refugees are competing with us in our best schools, and rightly so. This Government also thought it wise that the quota to our national schools is allocated per district. We are not crying because we are daft; no. The world experience is that the Lebanese in West Africa are more prosperous than the ones in Lebanon. The Indians in Kenya are more prosperous than the ones in India."
}