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"speaker_name": "Mr. Samoei",
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"content": "Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I thank you very much for giving me an opportunity to contribute to this Motion. From the start, I want to support this Motion and make it very clear that it is, indeed, in the strategic interests of the Republic of Kenya to have a peaceful and stable Somalia. As they say, it is better late than never. We should have engaged Somalia way back. You will remember that when Siyad Barre was forced out of office more than 20 years ago, the whole world tried to do something. The failure of that effort to save Somalia was because it was fronted by countries and interests that were not regional. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, today, we have Somalia in the hands of a regional force, under the African Union mandate. The only chance of success in Somalia is when we have a regional force backed by neighbours of Somalia. We have a chance of success because it is in the interests of all the countries surrounding Somalia to sort out the security issues in Somalia. We must engage our security forces in Somalia because, as a country, we are already suffering the effects of terrorism in Somalia. The cost of bringing goods to our country has gone up by 40-50 per cent merely because of insurance; shipping lines have upped their stakes. It is, therefore, absolutely necessary for us, as a country, to sort out the issues in Somalia by contributing in every way, including financially, if the need arises, because we are suffering from the effects of what is going on in Somalia. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, tourism which is actually the sector in which Kenya has a competitive advantage with beaches, wildlife, wildebeest migration and all, is suffering. We have not managed to go beyond 1.5 million tourists in our country. This is majorly contributed to by insecurity. It is obvious that we cannot grow our economy as fast as we want without a sector like tourism in which we have competitive advantage, growing. There is absolutely no reason why Kenya cannot attract 5 million tourists every year. A City like London which has nothing but very old buildings gets 30 million tourists every year. A country like France gets up to 86 million tourists every year. Why can Kenya not get 5 million tourists every year? In any case, scientific evidence indicates that for every extra tourist that we get, three Kenyans get a job. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I want to persuade this House that it is in the strategic and economic interest of Kenya to have a peaceful region. It is not possible to have a peaceful region if we do not sort out Somalia. Therefore, the request by the Minister of State for Defence for this House to approve that our national defence forces be joined into Somalia under the AMISOM, so that we can effectively deal with the menace that AlShabaab and other terrorist groups have brought to this region, is a very welcome development. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I beg to support."
}