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"speaker_name": "Mr. Lesrima",
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"content": "Thank you, Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I beg to move that the April 19, 2006 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 571 House do now adjourn to allow debate under Standing Order No.20 in order to discuss a pertinent matter of national importance concerning insecurity in the country. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I know that we are in mourning, but a situation of great sadness exists in our nation. We have lost senior civil servants before and we lost our colleagues recently. The issue is so fierce that we have internally displaced persons. Life has been disrupted and schools have been closed. Our people have abandoned farming activities for fear of an imminent attack. They have been made refugees in their own country. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I want to talk about the causes of insecurity in the country very briefly. This is mainly ethnic hatred, mistrust and a century of marginalization, particularly in those parts of Kenya where the conflict exists. We also have the problem of porous borders where there is movement of people with illegal small arms. I am sure we can deal with this issue if we are determined to work together. First, we need a leadership that brings the people together, particularly at the district and provincial levels. We also need the Government to talk with one voice, because sometimes we feel that there is a Government at the district level that speaks a different language and a Government in Nairobi which speaks a different language. We need compassionate administrators who can act very quickly by implementing rapid intervention measures when incidents take place. We need people to participate in bringing up solutions to insecurity. We need people to participate in bringing solutions to insecurity in Northern Kenya. Sometimes, we have many people conducting raids. In my constituency, we have been raided 16 times in two weeks. You wonder where the intelligence officers are. What do they do? Can we re- define their roles? We also need to support the peace committees. The Government alone cannot deal with security issues. We need peace committees to be facilitated, so that they operate in districts. I know that disarmament of people is taking place selectively. I alluded to that yesterday. There is a situation where some people are disarmed in some districts and others are not. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I am also aware that there is an arrangement of Kenya Police Reserves (KPR). But, again, we know that they are not properly trained. They are not given any uniforms or allowances. Those are some of the issues that need to be addressed. We also need to deal with the question of development. Without peace, there will be no development. I can also say that, without development, there will never be peace! We need to open up the infrastructure. We need to have education in all forms; formal and informal. So many youths in the affected areas do not attend school. We need to diversify the economy, so that we do not deal with cattle only. We need to add value to livestock, so that we can have hides and skins factories. There are opportunities for medicinal plants, honey refineries and mining. Development will be the only solution to some of the problems we have in those areas. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, we need to have good neighbourliness. Some boundaries between districts and countries bordering us are artificial. We should not pretend that we are not related to our immediate neighbours along the borders of our country. We need to engage them at grassroot and peace committee levels. We need Members of Parliament from different neighbouring countries like Ethiopia, Sudan and Uganda to continuously engage themselves in the process of peace making. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I talked about infrastructure. Areas of conflict in Kenya, particularly in the pastoralist areas, are usually endowed with a lot of grass. Usually, there is no water, roads for patrol and security, schools or centres. It is extremely urgent that we attend to those issues. Finally, the ultimate responsibility lies with the Government. As hon. Members from pastoral areas, we will support the Government. We are not very keen to see guns. In my constituency, we acquired guns to protect ourselves. We never acquired guns in 1996 for cattle rustling. We were told by the new Government that security was assured. We believed the 572 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES April 19, 2006 Government. We have faith in God and trust in the Government. But we feel let down! As soon as we voluntarily returned the guns, we were attacked immediately! Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, the Government acted very firmly---"
}