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{
"id": 318597,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/318597/?format=api",
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"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Dr. Nuh",
"speaker_title": "",
"speaker": {
"id": 114,
"legal_name": "Nuh Nassir Abdi",
"slug": "nuh-abdi"
},
"content": "Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, first and foremost, I want to appreciate the goodwill that Kenyans have for the people of Tana River, specifically Tana Delta. The compassion that was shown by hon. Members of Parliament wherever we meet and the messages of condolence and goodwill that are pouring in from across the country. I want to appreciate and thank all Kenyans for standing with us at these trying moments. Secondly, Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I also want to appreciate and thank the Kenya Red Cross for having stood firm in this conflict, even when issues are tough and rough. They have not left the scenes where orgy and violence have taken place to ensure that, at least, for those who have been left behind, they have a shoulder to lean on. Finally, Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I also want to appreciate the local leadership of elders, the youth and the women who have stood with us all through the meetings and the peace missions, urging our people that the bloodletting, killings and massacres will not bring a long-term solution and that you can never exterminate a community, whatever you use. I want to thank the local leaders and specifically the Chairman of the Peace Committee in Tana Delta, Mr. Ijema. This is an old man who, although he comes from one of the communities in the conflict, has stood in the middle to urge both communities to exercise some restraint and to ensure that normalcy returns. Having said that, Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, in any conflict and in any situation of war, the first casualty happens to be the truth. Even in the case of the Tana Delta, it becomes hard to trace where issues really started. It becomes the issue of the egg and the chicken; which came first? Even if you went there today, everybody will tell you that the other party started the conflict; but I do not want to dwell on that. But the truth that both sides of the feuding community will tell you is that because of inaction by the police; because of the law not being enforced; because of justice not being done--- I mean that when little skirmishes of one or two people who fight over crops or over animals, and nothing is done, things have reached where we are now. I want to give a very good example. When issues went out of hand and the massacre in Riketa happened, three days later, a man was hacked with a panga, but not killed. He was hacked by a person in a village near Garsen Town. This man was herding his cattle, around five or six cows to the market when someone just came with a panga and hacked him without any provocation. Things almost flared up and the whole of Garsen was almost burning to the brink. When the local chief and the elders turned in the person who committed the crime, and it happened to be someone who was even under the influence of drugs, everything calmed down. The tempers cooled, people went to their houses and normalcy returned. That is the power of justice. That is when people have confidence that when someone commits a crime, he will be commited to the law and the punishement he"
}