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{
    "id": 253284,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/253284/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 264,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Mr. Wetangula",
    "speaker_title": "The Assistant Minister for Foreign Affairs",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 210,
        "legal_name": "Moses Masika Wetangula",
        "slug": "moses-wetangula"
    },
    "content": " Thank you, Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, for giving me the opportunity to contribute to this Motion. I would also like to congratulate Mr. Lesrima for bringing this Motion to the House. As Mr. Khamasi said, this is not the first time we are having a Motion like this. It has been repeated over and over and we continue to have serious problems in this country. I agree with the Leader of Official Opposition that this is not the time for us to blame each other. It is time for us to look for solutions. I have always asked myself why we have military barracks in Lang'ata, Eastleigh, Kahawa and Thika. The list is endless. We have Committees in this House to advise the Government that it is not just about sending the police to northern Kenya. We need a fully-fledged military presence in northern Kenya to show our people that as a Government we care and that we have the capacity and ability to protect them. The police can do the menial security duties, but we need army garrisons fully supported by the airforce with aircrafts to fly across those vast areas of northern Kenya whenever there is a problem so that the presence of the Government can give security and confidence to the people of northern Kenya, so that they can feel that they belong to this country. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, last week and early this week, we all read in the newspapers that Ethiopian militia had made incursions into Kenya. This automatically becomes an aggression. I hope that the Minister for defence and security will move our forces closer to the Ethiopian border so that we can defend our people. There is absolutely no justification whatsoever for cattle rustlers, bandits or armies of the neighbouring country to walk into our territory, take our people's resources and walk back. That should not be allowed! We have to address that issue. Last week, we buried some of our finest colleagues in this House. I personally lost a teacher, Dr. Godana, whom I met in 1978. He taught us with Mr. Muturi here. He was a good person. Because of the problems that we are talking about today, six of our colleagues and other Kenyans are gone. That has been on and on. Sometimes back, we lost a Provincial Commissioner and several others; not to mention the countless villagers who are mere statistics in the war against banditry in northern Kenyan. Time has come for the Government to take the bull by the horns. Time has come for this House to put its foot down and say: \"Let us not have barracks around Nairobi. We need them in northern Kenya. Let us not have barracks in Eldoret! We do not need them there. We need them in northern Kenya!\" Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, our people are fighting over resources, with water being the key resource. I agree with my colleagues who have said that, it takes very little to give those people water. Build dams! The other day, we went to Marsabit after three days of rain. There April 19, 2006 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 585 was water wherever there was a gulley. That means that, if we want to harvest rain water for those people to use, we can do so. The other problem that we have is the mismanagement of land resources, even in Kajiado and Narok. The reckless sub-division of range lands has also created a problem. People are fighting because there is nowhere to graze their animals. We have not given them credible alternatives to lead decent lives. I would like to finish and give others an opportunity to speak. I would like to reiterate what others have said. We have sufficient capacity to stamp out banditry once and for all. We pay our military for doing nothing. Let us now pay them for doing something for the people of Kenya."
}