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"id": 277685,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/277685/?format=api",
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"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Mr. Namwamba",
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"speaker": {
"id": 108,
"legal_name": "Ababu Tawfiq Pius Namwamba",
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"content": "Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, when the history of this country is written, it certainly shall be remembered that it was during the reign of His Excellency President Mwai Kibaki that this country finally broke the jinx of our very long pursuit of a new constitutional order. Therefore, I want to commend the President, not only for the vision that he expressed in this House, his vision of this country and outlining also achievements that we have seen under his leadership and where he hopes to see our country headed, but also to applaud him for this momentous achievement. The Constitution that we celebrate, the new order that we credit the reign of His Excellency the President for is emphatic in its preamble; the aspiration of all Kenyans for a Government based on the essential values of human rights, equality, freedom, democracy, social justice and the rule of law. Indeed, listening to His Excellency the President yesterday, he made clear his intention to see all these beautiful values; all these aspirations expressed through the governance over which he runs but intention must be matched with deed. It must be matched with action. It is Ernest Hemmingway who loved to say that “never mistake motion for action”. Therefore, even as we applaud His Excellency the President for all the expressions of intention that are contained in His Speech, my concern is drawn to certain issues where the intention has not been matched by action. Let me start with the question of security. It is, indeed, gratifying to listen to His Excellency the President give an assurance that the people of this country should rest assured that we are safe, secure and that we can go about our business confident that we are safe. We may be safe from external aggression, but how safe are Kenyans from the very people who are employed at public expense to take care of their interest? Here, I am talking about the police. We have seen in the recent past very worrying incidents of signs of what you may want to call the return of the police State in this country. One of the reasons why Kenyans rose in unison to pursue a new constitutional order was the brutality meted on the people of this country by what was by all definitions a police State. We watched in horror a young man lying prostate on the ground, defenceless and unarmed being brutalized in a manner that was more than chilling. It reminded me of provisions of Article 49 of the Constitution on the rights of arrested persons. This article is clear of how an arrested person is supposed to be treated. If persons serving under His Excellency the President as Commander-in-Chief of the Republic of Kenya cannot guarantee these basic rights of an arrested person, it is worrying. It does not matter for what you have been arrested, but the provisions of Article 49 guarantee you certain basic protections that we have not witnessed in the recent past. The same Constitution guarantees the right to assemble, the right o associate and the right to expression. Again, the scenes we witnessed in Limuru two weeks ago of again innocent Kenyans gathered in a manner that did not appear in any way to infringe upon the Constitution. These people were scattered and brutalized. Again, we saw a young man on his kneels with his hands in the air. Basically, even in the midst of war or in the midst of international aggression, when a person goes on their knees and raises their hands, it is a sign of surrender. That person is supposed to be apprehended. But what we saw the police doing to that young man, it flew right in the face of the new Constitution and the question, therefore, that arise is: How far does the Government of His Excellency the President go in matching motion with action? On the question of ethnicity, as the President spoke, I was tucked in that corner of the House and I remembered the ageless words of Martin Luther King when he said “I have a dream of a nation where my children shall be judged by the content of their character and not the colour of their skin”. We are living at a time, especially as we implement the new Constitution, when some of us are wondering when we shall see a Kenya where every Kenyan is judged by the content of their character and not the sound of their last name. As the President speaks about national unity and, indeed, the words of our National Anthem which are also contained in our Constitution “justice be our shield and defender, may we dwell in unity, peace and liberty”."
}