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{
    "id": 253283,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/253283/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 263,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Mr. Khaniri",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 171,
        "legal_name": "George Munyasa Khaniri",
        "slug": "george-khaniri"
    },
    "content": "Thank you, Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, for giving me this opportunity. I rise to support this Motion in the strongest terms. I want to take the earliest opportunity to thank the hon. Member who moved this Motion. This Motion could not have come at a better time. It has come at a time when we have just buried our colleagues. The tears in our eyes have not yet even dried. It is good that this Motion is coming at this time. I hope and believe that hon. Members will discuss it with the seriousness that it deserves. It is my believe that the Government will take the recommendations and suggestions that are being made by hon. Members seriously. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I have a strong conviction that this Government has the capacity, ability and all the necessary resources to stop this fighting, whereas it lacks serious commitment and will to do it. If they had wanted to do it yesterday, they would have done so. We urge this Government to take this matter seriously. We are talking of lives of Kenyans. People are losing their lives. Those of us who have been watching television and reading newspapers see the pathetic situation and misery that those people in northern Kenya are going through. I want to remind this Government that the first and most important responsibility of any Government is to provide security for its citizens and their property. If you fail to do that, then you have no business calling yourself a Government. If this Government will not succeed in this effort of bringing peace in northern Kenya, they will have let the people of northern Kenya down. I want to promise them that these people also have votes. At one point you will need their support. If you do not provide peace for these people, I assure you that you will not get any vote from that part of the country. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, what is more disturbing is that these conflicts are not just internal. We also have external aggressors. The irony of it all, is that Kenya is a country that is known internationally for sending peace-keeping troops to war-torn countries. How can we be sending troops to other countries to keep peace when we have trouble in our own backyard and we cannot handle it? We have one of the best forces in the world and this is known. That is why we are always being called upon to go and keep peace in other countries. It is high time that this Government put the interests of people of North Eastern Province at heart and provided them with security. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, as leaders, we are discussing here and giving solutions that we think the Government can take to bring peace into this part of the country. We hope you will take this seriously. The Government should recruit more security personnel and post them to northern Kenya. Hon. Members from that region are suggesting that these security personnel be 584 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES April 19, 2006 recruited from the ground. They should be people who understand the problem. We want this to be taken seriously. When you are doing the next recruitment, you should give this more emphasis; recruit young men from those areas so that you can train them and send them to keep peace in those areas. These people should be given the basic necessities, like enough water, so that they do not fight. We want to see what the Government will do in the forthcoming Budget. I want to join my colleagues who said earlier that we can forfeit our bit of the water budget to go to North Eastern region. We can survive without water for some time because we have natural streams and plenty of rainfall. We want to see what the Government will do in the coming Budget. We want the Government to take this issue very seriously. As we blame the Government, we would also like to urge the local communities to have the goodwill. As much as the Government will provide good roads, water and security personnel, if they do not convince themselves that they want to live peacefully with one other, they will not be peaceful. We want the local communities and leaders to preach what they practise. With those few remarks, I support."
}