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"id": 277743,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/277743/?format=api",
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"speaker_name": "Ms. Amina Abdalla",
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"legal_name": "Amina Ali Abdalla",
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"content": "Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I want to give you an example of what I equate our cases in the ICC to. I will tell you a story about two border towns. One is a Dutch town and the other one is a German town. The German town decided to have local solutions and resources for everything. It produced its own food, wine, courts and everything. The Dutch town decided that it was going to buy anything that is cheap. It decided that if it can get something cheaper than the cost that it will produce that item, it will buy that cheap item. That Dutch town is now dead while that German town is an industrialized town. So, as Kenyans, let us not applaud external solutions to our problems. Let us look for internal solutions. It is only when we look for internal solutions that we will have sustainable solutions to our problems. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, there are many people who have said that there are tribal groupings which, in their view, they are a problem and, indeed, they are problem. However, these same tribal groupings can be used positively. Those tribal groupings that people are criticising the most come from the two groups that fought the most in the post- election violence. We should be urging those groupings to have negotiations and discussions to deal with the core problems that made them fight. They can use those positive aspects to take us forward. It is very easy to criticise and see that people are tribalistic or nepotistic. A lot of the elites in this country say that it is politicians who are pushing it. Let us be clear. Even the elites in this country are beneficiaries of tribalism. When I turned 18 years in this country, I was told that I would only get an identity card if I identified with a tribe. I am Kenyan by birth and not Kenyan by tribe, but I have to identify with a tribe. When I told the officer who was to give me an identity card that I was an Arab, he told me: “There is no tribe called Arab. You must look for an indigenous tribe to relate to for me to give you an identity card”. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, when I went to university, the first person I met asked me: “Where do you come from?” I told him that I come from Nairobi. He said: “Only bastards come from Nairobi.” I had to identify a county to relate to. Everybody in this country is a beneficiary of some form of tribalism. I am a beneficiary of some form of tribalism. What I use with that benefit to ensure that tribalism in a negative sense does not take place is what should be my contribution. Let us not just demonise tribalism for the sake of demonising it because it is something that can be used positively and we can move forward positively. We had gone to great length to improve our recruitment processes for independent Commissions, so that we are able to give meritocracy a chance in this country, so that we can say that no tribal chief is going to give all the jobs that are available to his people. However, what we have created tends to give us people who have very serious political lineages for jobs that extremely require bipartisan non-political nature. I agree with hon. Millie Odhiambo, but on the issue of the IEBC, we need to deal with the fact that there is a problem. All those cases going to court about the constituencies are not for the sake of just taking the IEBC to court. There is a problem in the IEBC, where there is partisanship and clanism, and we need to deal with it. Sweeping it under the carpet will not solve this problem. There is a problem at the IEBC and we need to deal with it. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I have a presidential candidate I prefer and I will campaign for that presidential candidate as far as I can go. However, my presidential candidate and my preference is not a matter of life and death. We, as politicians, must come back and say: “I do not care who is president.” I do not support Raila Odinga, but I do not care if he is elected the president of this country, if he can assure me that whether I am in this House or not, I will have peace, I will do my business and my children will go to school. So, as we create propaganda to make our preferred candidates perform better in the next general elections; let us think of Kenya first. At the end of the day, some people say “if my tribe is in State House, I will benefit”, but the presidency has not changed the lives of the peasant farmers in Central Kenya. It never changed the lives of the peasant farmers in Baringo when the President was from Baringo. So, ladies and gentlemen, for those of you who go to public rallies and create tension that is unnecessary, which will cause people to die; those of you who make stories that will cause insecurity in this country should go back and remember that even if you are not the one who will be held responsible for whatever will happen, you will answer to your God for whatever will happen. So, as you go campaigning for your presidential candidate, just know that it is not a matter of life and death. These are all human beings. They have faults. They have strengths. If they go to State House, you might even be removed from the inner circle, if you are campaigning for them because you want to be in the inner circle. With those few remarks, I beg to support the President’s Speech."
}